This was nearly two million tons lower than 2014, a decline of 2.7%. The slowdown was commensurate with the rest of the steel industry, which fell by 2.5% worldwide and by 2.9% if China is excluded from the data. The primary cause of the lower production of DRI was dropping prices for steel and resultant fall in steel production that arose from a slowdown in Chinese demand combined with extreme steelmaking overcapacity within China.