At the meeting, Divisional Statistics Advisor Rolf Willeke reviewed some of the main findings of the publication.
His report began by noting last year’s 1.9 percent reduction in global crude steel production to around 1.850 billion tonnes. According to worldsteel, 69.4 percent of the total was produced in oxygen furnaces and 30.3 percent in electric furnaces. There was a decrease in oxygen production but a small increase in electric steel production.
An important indicator for the green transition is global direct reduced iron output, which grew a further 4.9 percent last year to around 153 million tonnes. The leading producer was once again India with an increase of 7.4 percent to around 58.9 million tonnes.
Recycled steel usage 4.5 percent higher
Total recycled steel usage in key countries and regions was 4.5 percent higher last year at 480 million tonnes in spite of a crude steel production drop of 2.5 percent. China retained its position as the world´s biggest recycled steel user with a consumption increase of 8.3 percent to 227 million tonnes despite the country’s crude steel production decrease of 4.4 percent.
The statistics also reveal another positive result for India which achieved significant increases in both recycled steel consumption and crude steel production.
The total figure for recycled steel consumption in key countries and regions represents around 75 percent of global steel usage for steelmaking.
From BIR’s own calculations and those of worldsteel, it can be concluded that each year some 630 million tonnes of recycled steel are used in global steelmaking, thereby preventing nearly 950 million tonnes of CO2 emissions while saving energy and conserving natural resources.
Recycled steel use in crude steel production was very high last year for Turkey at 86.8 percent, but it was very low for China at 23.6 percent because of its high share of oxygen production and thus lower recycled steel input.
Drop in Turkey`s recycled steel imports
Turkey remained the world`s foremost importer of recycled steel in 2025 despite a decline in the country´s overseas purchases to 18.768 million tonnes. Its principal suppliers were the USA (-20.4 percent to 3.608 million tonnes) and the Netherlands (-0.1 percent to 2.764 million tonnes).
India ranked second among global recycled steel importers (-5 percent to 8.040 million tonnes), notably coming from the U.S. (-11.4 percent to 1.320 million tonnes) and the UK (-11 percent to 0.890 million tonnes).
Import volumes increased last year into the EU-27 (+28.8 percent to 4.991 million tonnes), the USA (+5.1 percent to 4.662 million tonnes) and Pakistan (+39.8 percent to 3.022 million tonnes) while declines were recorded in Taiwan (-38.1 percent to 1.853 million tonnes) and South Korea (-17.4 percent to 1.782 million tonnes).
EU-27 remains top exporter
The EU-27 retained its status as the world´s leading recycled steel exporter in 2025 despite a 2 percent decline to 16.684 million tonnes. Turkey (-0.9 percent to 10.824 million tonnes) and Egypt (+13.4 percent to 1.86 million tonnes) were the primary destinations, with the Netherlands again the EU-27’s largest individual external exporter (+4.39 percent to 3.922 million tonnes).
The United States remained the second-largest recycled steel exporter globally in 2025 despite an 18.4 percent drop to 11.767 million tonnes. Key customers were Turkey (-14.3 percent to 3.796 million tonnes) and Bangladesh (-28.1 percent to 1.325 million tonnes).
There were increases last year in recycled steel export volumes from the UK (+4.4 percent to 6.532 million tonnes), Mexico (+34.1 percent to 1.599 million tonnes), Singapore (+33.3 percent to 1.262 million tonnes) and Japan (+17.96 percent to 7.711 million tonnes) while declines were recorded from Canada (-5.4 percent to 4.280 million tonnes) and Hong Kong (-8.7 percent to 1.100 million tonnes).
On a net export basis, the EU-27 and the USA remained the dominant players. Export price trends in both regions followed a broadly parallel course throughout the year.
Published June 2026