South America Posted Dip in Crude Steel Production

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster):  The South American crude steel output witnessed marginal dip in February 2020. The regional output dropped by 0.9% from 3.407 million tonnes (Mt) in February 2019 to 3.377 Mt in February this year.

The World Steel Association (worldsteel) production data indicates that Brazil’s output totalled 2.704 Mt, slightly lower when matched with 2.704 Mt in the same month a year before. Argentina- the second largest producer saw its steel output surge higher substantially by 8% to 344,000 tonnes. In third place was Colombia, whose output was estimated at 100,000 tonnes. The other primary producers were Peru (95,000 tonnes), Chile (75,000 tonnes) and Ecuador (50,000 tonnes).

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The output by Paraguay registered biggest leap, up by 84.8% from the previous year. On the contrary, the Venezuelan output declined the most, falling by 71.5% year-on-year.

During the initial two-month period in 2020, South American region produced 6.705 Mt of steel. This is significantly lower by 6% from the corresponding two-month production of 7.131 Mt in 2019. The top five crude steel producing countries in Jan-Feb ’20 were Brazil (5.384 Mt), Argentina (642,000 tonnes), Colombia (204,000 tonnes), Peru (197,000 tonnes) and Chile (155,000 tonnes).