China Continues to Propel Asian Crude Steel Output Surge

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): China led crude steel output surge by the Asian region during the month of June this year, says the latest crude steel production statistics published by the World Steel Association (worldsteel).

The regional monthly production totaled 115.622 million tonnes (Mt) in June 2019. This compares with the production of 107.676 Mt in June last year. The Asian output recorded year-on-year surge by 7.4%. Also, the region accounted for 73% of the global crude steel production during the month.

Chinese output surged higher by 10% over the previous year to total 87.533 Mt in June this year. It must be noted that the country had produced only 79.585 Mt in the same month a year before. It accounted for nearly 76% of the regional production and 55% of the world output.

ALSO READ: World Crude Steel Output Surged 5% in First Half of 2019

The second largest producer in the Asian region was India, whose output recorded 4% jump year-on-year to total 9.336 Mt. In third place was Japan with a production of 8.789 Mt. Japan’s output was up marginally by 0.4% when matched with the previous year. The other primary steel producers were South Korea (5.958 Mt), Taiwan (1.960 Mt), Vietnam (1.350 Mt), Thailand (415,000 tonnes) and Pakistan (280,000 tonnes). The output by Pakistan and Thailand plunged by 37% and 30% respectively.

The half yearly output by Asian countries totaled 660.176 Mt, higher by 7.4% from 614.547 Mt in Jan-June ’18. The top three producing countries were China (492.169 Mt), India (56.959 Mt) and Japan (51.082 Mt).