Middle East Region Recorded 5% Surge in Steel Production

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The World Steel Association (worldsteel) published the region-wise crude steel production data for the month of September this year. As per data, the Middle East region recorded 5% surge in output during the month, compared to September 2018. The production had increased by 4% in August too.

The regional production totalled 3.070 million tonnes (Mt) in September this year. It must be noted that the region had produced only 2.923 Mt of crude steel in the same month a year before. All the countries except Qatar increased their output on a year-on-year basis. Qatar’s crude steel production witnessed marginal drop by 1.7% from 226,000 tonnes to 222,000 tonnes.

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Iran continued to remain as the region’s largest steel producer, accounting for more than 69% of the total regional output. The country’s production surged higher by 3.2% from 2.065 Mt to 2.130 Mt. The Saudi Arabian steel output too was up by 6.4% year-on-year to total 425,000 tonnes, compared with 399,000 tonnes in September 2018. The biggest production jump was recorded by the UAE, which saw its output surge higher by nearly 26% from 233,000 tonnes to 293,000 tonnes over the year.

The Middle East crude steel production during Jan-Sep ’19 totalled 27.632 Mt, higher by 4.3% from 26.498 Mt in the corresponding nine-month period in 2018. The key steel producing countries were Iran (19.318 Mt), Saudi Arabia (3.888 Mt) and the UAE (2.456 Mt).