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1. China's Steel Market Feeling the Squeeze (May 2025 PMI)
What happened: Think of the Steel Industry PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) as a quick health check for China's steel market. For May 2025, this "health score" dropped to 46.4%. Why is that a big deal? Any score below 50% indicates that the industry is shrinking, not growing. This 4.2-point drop shows things are cooling off again after a brief rebound, signaling that the steel industry is facing more pressure.
Essentially, people aren't buying as much steel, so steel mills are cutting back a bit on how much they produce. Even though there's less steel being made, the existing stock isn't selling off quickly. Because demand is weak, steel prices are wobbly and staying low. On the flip side, the raw materials used to make steel are also cheap, which means steel mills are still managing to make some profit, even if prices are low. Looking ahead to June, expect this slow demand to continue, with production likely to drop further. Prices for both raw materials and finished steel are expected to remain low and fluctuate slightly.
2. US Slaps Higher Tariffs on Steel & Aluminum (June 2025)
On June 3rd, the US made a big move: President Trump signed an order to dramatically increase taxes on imported steel and aluminum (and products made from them) from 25% to a whopping 50%. This new tax hike went into effect on June 4th. China quickly spoke out against this, saying on June 5th that raising these tariffs again just hurts everyone involved, won't really make US industries safer, and will mess up global supply chains. China urged the US to stop being so protectionist, stick to international trade rules, and talk things out fairly.
3. Global Steel Snapshot: 2024 Production & Top Players (World Steel Association Report)
What happened: The World Steel Association just released its "World Steel in Figures 2025" report on June 6th. This report is like a comprehensive yearbook for the steel industry, packed with stats on everything from how much raw steel was made, how much was used, global trade volumes, and even iron ore production. A key takeaway is that global crude steel production in 2024 was 1.885 billion tons, slightly down from 1.904 billion tons in 2023, showing production has been pretty stable since 2020. They also highlighted that for every ton of crude steel produced in 2023, 1.92 tons of CO2 were emitted, with traditional blast furnace processes being a bit higher at 2.32 tons per ton of steel. The report also listed the top 50 steel companies globally by production in 2024. China Baowu Steel Group held onto the number one spot with 130 million tons, ArcelorMittal was second, and Ansteel Group was third. Several other Chinese companies (HBIS, Shagang, Jianlong, Shougang) made it into the top ten, with Chinese steel companies making up more than half of the entire top 50 list.
