FRANKFURT: Global steel output plunged 24.3 per cent year-on-year in December as recession bites into nearly all the major steel producing countries, official data showed on Thursday.

The World Steel Association said world crude steel output reached 1.33 billion metric tonnes in 2008, down 1.2 per cent from the year before.

Production in Asia -- led by China and the Middle East -- grew 1.9 per cent in 2008, the industry association for steelmakers said.

But the decline in world steel production gathered pace from September to the end of the 2008, it added.

The 27 countries in the euro zone produced a total of 199 million metric tonnes last year, down 5.3 per cent, with Germany, Italy and France recording reductions.

Output in North America was down 5.5 per cent, with the United States producing 91 million metric tonnes, a decrease of 6.8 per cent.

China"s crude steel output totalled 502 million metric tonnes, up 2.6 per cent, with production volume more than doubling within five years.

It became the first country to ever make more than half a billion tonnes of steel in one year.