World BFI Output Expanded In April
The South American BFI output dropped from 2.689 Mt in March to 2.589 Mt in April, whereas the North American production too declined from 2.994 Mt to 2.870 Mt over the previous month.
SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The blast furnace iron (BFI) production data collected from 38 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) indicates marginal increase in production during April this year. This is the second straight month of increase. The BFI output had recorded tremendous growth in March 2018. Incidentally, these 38 countries accounted for approximately 99% of total world BFI production in 2016.
The BFI output totaled 102.263 million tonnes (Mt) in April 2018, slightly higher by less than 1% when compared with the output of 101.273 Mt in March this year. The production declines in other regions were more than offset by increased production from Asia and Oceania regions. Meantime, the cumulative BFI production during the initial four-month period of 2018 totaled 395.823 Mt.
Asia continued to remain as the world’s largest BFI producer with an output of 80.357 Mt, accounting for almost 79% of the total global output. Among Asian countries, China was the leading producer, with an output of 63.106 Mt. The other key Asian producers were Japan (6.332 Mt), India (5.908 Mt) and South Korea (3.791 Mt). The total Asian output increased when compared with 78.528 Mt in March this year. The combined output by the region totaled 308.246 Mt in the opening four months of the current year.
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The South American BFI output dropped from 2.689 Mt in March to 2.589 Mt in April, whereas the North American production too declined from 2.994 Mt to 2.870 Mt over the previous month. Brazil was the largest producer in South America, accounting for more than 90% of the total regional output. The U.S. output totaled 1.880 Mt. Meantime, the output by the EU and Other Europe region totaled 8.273 Mt and 951,000 tonnes respectively. 6.294 Mt of BFI was produced by the CIS region. Also, Oceania region produced 391,000 tonnes.