Europe’s Crude Steel Production Rose Marginally in March '18

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The EU-28 countries recorded marginal increase in crude steel production during the month of March this year, says latest data published by the World Steel Association (worldsteel). The EU-28 region reported 0.5% jump in output when compared with March 2017. Meantime, production by other European countries surged higher significantly by 6.4%.

The EU-28 countries produced 15.111 million tonnes  (Mt) of crude steel in March this year, marginally higher by 0.5% when compared with the March 2017 production of 15.038 Mt. The steel production by other European countries comprising of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Norway, Serbia and Turkey totaled 3.645 Mt, higher by 6.4% year-on-year. The production had totaled 3.425 Mt in March last year.

Germany continued to remain as Europe’s largest crude steel producer. The country’s production edged higher marginally over the year to total 3.9 Mt. The second largest producer in the region was Italy with 2.280 Mt of production. In third place was France with 1.353 Mt. These top three countries accounted for nearly 50% of the total European monthly output. The other key producers were Spain (1.310 Mt), Poland (880,000 tonnes) and Belgium (650,000 tonnes).

Slovenia and Slovakia reported 16.6% and 13.3% jump in production respectively over the previous year. The output by Belgium recorded the biggest fall, declining by nearly 10% when compared with March 2017.

The combined production during the initial three-month period by EU-28 countries edged higher marginally by less than 1% to 43.073 Mt, when compared with the output of 42.683 Mt during the corresponding quarter last year. Meantime, production by other European countries surged higher by 9.3% from 9.546 Mt in Q1 2017 to 10.432 Mt in Q1 this year.