Global steel production up 5.6% y/y

The World Steel Association (worldsteel) reported that Asia had produced 876.3-million tonnes of crude steel in the first nine months of 2017, an increase of 5.9% over the comparable period in 2016.

The European Union produced 126.4-million tonnes of crude steel in the first nine months of the year, a 4.1% year-on-year increase, while the Commonwealth of Independent States produced 76.4-million tonnes of crude steel in the first nine months of the year, the same amount it produced over the same period of 2016.

North America’s crude steel production for the nine months rose by 3.5% year-on-year to 86.7-million tonnes, while Brazil’s crude steel production for the nine-month period was up by 7.6% year-on-year to three-million tonnes.

Crude steel production in Africa for the nine months increased by 13.8% to 9.90-million tonnes, compared with 8.69-million tonnes in the prior comparable period.

Egypt increased its output by 36% year-on-year to 4.93-million tonnes, while South Africa’s output decreased by 0.2% year-on-year to 4.68-million tonnes.

Meanwhile, for the month of September, China’s crude steel production increased by 5.3% year-on-year to 71.8-million tonnes, while Japan produced 8.6-million tonnes of crude steel, a year-on-year increase of 2%.

The U.S. produced 6.7-million tonnes of crude steel in September, an 8.6% year-on-year increase.

South Africa’s crude steel production increased by 9% year-on-year to 556 000 t for September, while Egypt’s production increased by 19.68% to 568 000 t.

The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 66 countries in September was 73.5%, 2.8 percentage points higher than in September 2016.