The association, which released its early tally of global production on Tuesday, said the worldwide production stood at 1.83 billion metric tons, down from 1.85 billion metric tons in 2019. 

China, however, saw its production rise 5.2% to 1.05 billion metric tons. Its share of global production also increased, growing to 57.6%. In 2019, it accounted for 54.2% of worldwide output.  

India and Japan, the world’s second- and third-largest producers, respectively, each saw output decline in 2020. Indian production fell 10.6% to 99.6 million metric tons, and Japanese production declined 16.2% to 83.2 million metric tons. 

The U.S. and Russia remained the fourth- and fifth-largest producers, respectively.  In 2020, the U.S. produced 72.7 million metric tons, down 17.2% from the prior year. Meanwhile, Russian production slightly increased by 0.4% to 71.9 million metric tons.