World Steel Output Remains Weak

With 145.3 million tonnes produced, crude steel production in the 63 nations tracked by worldsteel was down 3.3% from a year ago but up from 140.7 million tonnes in December.

In China, the estimated production for January increased 2.3% year over year to 79.5 mt after dropping to 77.89 mt in December. Ahead of anticipated higher demand in Q2, Chinese factories have been stepping up production.

However, production was declining in other parts of Asia. India’s 10.9mt production fell just 0.2% year over year in January. South Korea’s production fell 9.8% to 5.5 mt, while Japan’s output fell 6.9% to 7.2 mt.

In the EU27, crude steel output fell even faster by 15.2% y-o-y to 10.3mt. Germany alone provided a 10.2% decline in output to 2.9mt.

Meanwhile, production fell 17.6% year over year to 2.6 mt in Turkey.

The production of basic steel decreased by 6.8% to 6.5 mt in the USA and by 4.9% to 2.8 mt in Brazil, respectively.

The production of steel in Russia decreased by 8.9% year over year to 5.8 mt.

Only Iran produced more steel, with a year-over-year rise of 27.7% to 2.7 mt.