Blast Furnace Iron Output Sinks Marginally in April

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The monthly statistics released by the World Steel Association indicate that blast furnace iron production by world countries declined slightly by 0.4% during April 2017. The production totaled 100.769 million tonnes (Mt) during the month, as compared with the production of 101.142 Mt during March this year. The cumulative BFI output during the initial four months of 2017 totaled 389.464 million tonnes. It must be noted that the above information is based on the output recorded by 39 countries, which accounted for 99% of the world BFI production during the entire year 2015.

The BFI output by the Asian region totaled 79.295 Mt during the month, accounting for nearly 79.0% of the total world output. The output during the month remained more or less flat when matched with the output of 79.255 Mt in March ‘17. The leading Asian BFI producers during April this year were China (62.577 Mt), Japan (6.514 Mt), India (5.535 Mt) and South Korea (3.449 Mt). The cumulative production by Asian region totaled 306.314 Mt during the first four months of 2017.

The 28 countries of the European Union recorded an output of 7.909 Mt during April 2017, down marginally when matched with the output of 7.989 Mt output reported during the prior month. The top producers of the region were Germany (2.553 Mt), France (815,000 tonnes), the UK (549,000 tonnes), Austria (522,000 tonnes), the Netherlands (494,000 tonnes) and Italy (426,000 tonnes). The cumulative yearly BFI production by the EU-28 countries totaled 31.390 Mt during the first four months. The Other Europe region including countries such as Boznia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Turkey reported monthly and cumulative output of 1.024 Mt and 4.149 Mt respectively.

The CIS region reported BFI production totaling 6.215 Mt during the month. The output declined modestly by 3.2% when matched with the previous month output of 6.420 Mt. The leading BFI producer during the month was Russia with 4.405 Mt. The other key producers were Ukraine (1.525 Mt) and Kazakhstan (285,000 tonnes). The Jan-Apr ’17 output by the CIS region totaled 25.070 Mt.

The North American BFI output declined marginally from 2.874 Mt in March ‘17 to 2.765 Mt in April ’17. The output by the US totaled 1.800 Mt, constituting nearly 68% of the total production by the region. The US production has declined by nearly 4% from 1.956 Mt in March this year. The other key BFI producing nations were Canada (555,000 tonnes) and Mexico (335,000 tonnes). The regional output during the initial four-month period of the year totaled 11.308 Mt. The cumulative output by the US during Jan-Apr ’17 totaled 7.705 Mt. The output by Canada and Mexico totaled 2.201 Mt and 1.402 Mt respectively.

Meantime, the blast furnace iron production by South America increased marginally over the previous month to total 2.653 Mt in Apr ‘17. Among the countries in the region, Brazil produced 2.401 Mt during the month. The output by Brazil had totaled 2.353 Mt during the month prior to this. The other key BFI producers during the month were Argentina (180,000 tonnes), Chile (55,000 tonnes), Colombia (15,000 tonnes) and Paraguay (2,000 tonnes). The South American output during the first four months of 2017 totaled 7.678 Mt.

Oceania region’s BFI production increased sharply during April. The production totaled 373,000 tonnes, considerably higher when compared with the production of 348,000 tonnes during March this year. The output by Australia registered marginal increase from 300,000 tonnes in March to 313,000 tonnes in April. Also, New Zealand’s output surged higher from 49,000 tonnes to 60,000 tonnes over the previous month. The cumulative output during the initial four-month period of 2017 by the region totaled 1.434 Mt.