African Crude Steel Output Surged the Highest in January

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The African crude steel production surged higher significantly during the first month of the current year. The production recorded incremental gains during the month. The region recorded the highest jump in monthly output.

According to production data released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel), the African crude steel output rose considerably by over 15% in January 2018, as compared with the output during the corresponding month in 2017. The regional production totaled 1.285 million tonnes (Mt), higher by 15.1% when matched with the production of 1.116 Mt in Jan ’17.

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All major producers in the region recorded production rise during the month. Egypt, the largest producer produced 660,000 tonnes of crude steel during the month. The country recorded 15.2% jump in production when compared with the output of 573,000 tonnes in January last year. South Africa continued to be the second biggest producing country. The South African output too recorded over 8% year-on-year growth from 534,000 tonnes in Jan ’17 to 577,000 tonnes in January this year.

Libya recorded remarkable jump in production volumes during the opening month of the year. The Libyan output has skyrocketed by more than 400% from just 9,000 tonnes in January 2017 to around 48,000 tonnes in Jan ’18.

The global crude steel output had increased marginally by 0.8% to 139.439 Mt in January this year. Also, the crude steel capacity utilization ratio of the 64 countries reporting to the worldsteel was 70% during the month, which is marginally lower by 0.2% when compared with January 2017.

It must be noted that the African crude steel output had recorded 15.9% year-on-year jump in 2017. The regional production had totaled 13.523 Mt in 2017, as compared with the production of 11.669 Mt in 2016. Egypt (+35.0%) and South Africa (+2.6%) had registered jump in output, whereas Libyan output had declined by over 14% during the course of the year.