Middle East crude steel up marginally during May

ABU DHABI (Scrap Monster): According to most recent data published by the World Steel Association (World Steel), the crude steel production by the Middle East region recovered slightly by 0.6% during the month of May ’15 year-on-year. The region’s crude steel output totaled 2.506 Million tonnes during May this year, as compared with 2.490 Million tonnes during the same month a year before.

The total crude steel production by Iran during May was 1.455 Million tonnes, marginally up by 2.4% in comparison with the May 2014 production of 1.422 Million tonnes. Qatar produced 239,000 tonnes of crude steel, considerably lower by 6.3% when compared to 255,000 tonnes production achieved during May 2014. Meantime, Saudi Arabia’s crude steel output remained flat over the previous year at 545,000 tonnes during May this year. The total crude steel production by the UAE during May was 266,000 tonnes, down by 0.8% in comparison with the May 2014 production of 268,000 tonnes.

The cumulative crude steel output by the Middle East region during the initial five months of current year totaled 11.805 Million tonnes, 2.4% higher when compared with the output of 11.529 Million tonnes during the corresponding five-month period in 2014.

The following table provides cumulative crude steel output for the first five months in 2015 in comparison with those during same period in 2014.

  (Note: Output in thousands of tonnes)