SOURCE: THE JACK LIFTON REPORT

BEIJING, Apr 23, 2010 - In 2009, the People’s Republic of China produced more than onehalf of all of the metals produced in the world. Almost all of this metal production, as a percentage, was of raw steel and pig iron (53.2%), which in combination I will refer to as “iron”. It may well have been the first time since 1948, that any one nation has produced more than half of both the world’s steel and pig iron.

In 1948, the global production of raw steel was “only” 141 million tonnes, of which the USA produced 80.4 million tonnes (57%) and China produced little or none. In 2009, the global production of raw steel was 1.1 billion tonnes of which the PRC produced 550 million tonnes (50%). In 2009, the USA produced 92 million tons of raw steel (8.4%).

The all time high production for the USA was reached in 1973, when the USA produced 137 million tonnes (20%) of raw steel out of a world total in 1973 of 698 million tonnes. Note that from the end of World War II onwards, although American steel production was climbing on the average from year to year, America’s share of world production was declining steadily.

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