World leading steel exporters by country in 2022

In 2022, China was the leading country of origin for steel exports, exporting 68.1 million metric tons of its production. It dwarfed all other countries, including Japan, which ranked second, shipping 31.7 million metric tons of steel. The United States, which was the leading importer of steel worldwide, ranked 16th for steel exports. 

China is dominating the steel market

China has the largest steel industry in the world, manufacturing around half of all crude steel globally produced. It had substantial expansion over the last few decades and still controls most of the world's steel production. In 2022, six of the ten largest steel-producing companies were Chinese. That year, China Baowu Group produced around 120 million metric tons of crude steel, which was significantly higher than the other producers. Ansteel Group, the second-largest Chinese company, had just below 55.7 million metric tons of crude steel that year.

Worldwide steel imports

Despite being the largest steel exporter, China is also one of the leading steel-importing countries due to its high demand. In 2022, apparent steel use in China was equal to about 920.9 million tons of finished steel products. China was the leading market for steel scrap consumption in that year. The country's steel scrap consumption came to over 215.3 million metric tons.