Europe’s leading steel location
Germany, with annual production of almost 43 million tonnes of crude steel in 2014, is the world’s seventh-largest steel producer and the largest in the European Union (EU 28). Germany is responsible for 2,6 per cent of world production, or a quarter of crude steel production in the EU. With 17.2 billion euros, the steel industry in Germany is responsible for about 30 per cent of the value creation achieved by the European steel industry.
About two-thirds of steel in Germany is produced in integrated steel mills (blast furnace, steelworks and rolling mill), the remaining third via the electric steel route. The manufacture of hot-rolled finished products totalled 36.5 m. tonnes in 2014. Most were flat products (65 per cent), with long products making up the remaining 35 per cent. Stainless and alloyed steels make up over 50 per cent of total production and thus have a higher status here than is internationally usual (approx. 30 per cent). North Rhine-Westphalia is the German state that produces the most steel – about 40 per cent.