Global Crude Steel Output Surged 4.1% in February

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The monthly world crude steel production data published by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) indicates significant jump in output during the month of February 2019. The data compiled from 64 countries reporting to the Association shows that production surged higher by 4.1% year-on-year from 131.916 million tonnes (Mt) in February 2018 to 137.274 Mt in February this year.

The production declines in EU-28, Other Europe, CIS, South America and Oceania were more than offset by increased production in other regions such as North America, Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The EU-28 crude steel production has dropped by 5% over the previous year. The Other European region reported sharper decline by 11.6%. The steel output by the CIS region too was down by 2%. North American output edged higher marginally by 0.2%, mainly driven by the U.S. production which witnessed a jump of 4.6%. On the contrary, the South American output witnessed sharp decline by 5.8%. Brazilian output declined marginally by 1.7%, worldsteel data said.

The African and Middle East output were up considerably by 12.6% and 22.2% respectively. The 6.8% surge in Asian output was mainly driven by China, whose output increased by 9.2%. Meantime, Oceania region’s steel output witnessed notable decline by 8%.

The cumulative steel output by world countries during the first two months of the current year totaled 287.609 Mt, notably higher by 3.8% when compared with the output of 277.191 Mt during Jan-Feb ’18.