EU-28 Countries Extended Slump in Crude Steel Production

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The EU-28 countries reported sharp decline in crude steel production during the month of May this year. It must be noted that the global crude steel output had recorded 8.7% decline during the month.

The recent production statistics published by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) indicates that the European crude steel output totalled 10.485 million tonnes (Mt) in May this year, recording substantial decline by 26.8%, compared with the prior year. The regional production had totalled 14.315 Mt in May 2019.

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Germany-the largest producer in the region saw its output drop sharply over the previous year by almost 19% from 3.513 Mt to 2.850 Mt. The steel output by Italy, at 1.250 Mt, was down significantly by approximately 44%. The country had produced 2.217 Mt of crude steel in May last year. Meantime, the monthly output by France plunged by 36.5% year-on-year from 1.235 Mt to 784,000 tonnes.

Hungary and the UK were the only countries to report production jump during the month. The output by these countries was up by 10.6% and 10.1% respectively. On the contrary, Italy and Slovenia recorded largest decline in output, registering year-on-year declines by 43.6% and 43.5% respectively.

The regional cumulative crude steel production during the first five months of 2020 recorded a decline by 11.7%, falling from 70.465 Mt to 58.013 Mt. The top three steel producing countries were Germany (15.267 Mt), Italy (7.653 Mt) and France (4.796 Mt).