Last year, South Korea moved up a notch to become the world's fifth biggest producer of steel, outpacing Russia.<br />According to the World Steel Association, a global industry group, Korea produced 72-and-a-half million tons of crude steel, an increase of 2 percent from the year before and accounting for 4-point-6 percent of global production.<br />Number one last year was China with 923 million tons, and a little over 51-percent of the world total.<br />Next were India, Japan and the U.S.,... with Korea bumping Russia to sixth.<br />Both China and the U.S. saw steel production increase by more than 6 percent. <br />
