RIA Novosti reported that global steel output in the first 11 months of 2014 was 1.498 billion tons, increasing 1.8% on year. China produced 749 million tons of steel, up 1.9% on year, ranking first. Russia followed China with 64.794 million tons, up 2.8%. Ukraine's steel output was 25.261 tons, down 16.1%. German produced 39.694 tons of steel, up 1.3%. Italy produced 22.255 tons of steel, down 0.2%.
The Chinese economy began to show signs of stabilization as gross domestic product expanded 7.8 percent in the third quarter, up from 7.5 percent in the second, leaving room for the country to overhaul its economy into a more sustainable growth pattern.