South Korea’s steel production fell below 70 million metric tons for the first time in four years in 2020 as demand from carmakers, shipbuilders and construction firms plunged amid the COVID-19 pandemic, industry data showed Sunday.
The country produced a total of 60.71 million metric tons of steel in 2020, ranking sixth in terms of steel output, following China, India, Japan, Russia and the United States, according to data from the Korea Iron & Steel Association.
It was the first time for the local steel production to fall below 70 million tons after it marked 68.6 million tons in 2016.
Global steel production declined 0.9 percent to 1.86 billion tons last year, marking the first decline since a 3.1 percent drop in 2015.
