World BFI Output Recorded Tremendous Growth in March 2018

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The world blast furnace iron (BFI) output recorded notable surge during the month of March 2018. The recent production data published by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) indicates that all regions reported increased output, when compared with the prior month. It must be noted that world BFI output had declined sharply during February this year.

The global BFI output surged higher by more than 11% over the previous month to total 100.705 million tonnes (Mt) in March 2018. The output had totaled only 90.475 Mt in February this year. The above production figures are based on production data compiled from 38 member countries that accounted for approximately 99% of the world blast furnace iron production in the whole year 2016. Meantime, the cumulative BFI production during the initial three-month period of 2018 totaled 292.112 Mt, after hitting elevated levels during the whole year 2017.

Asia was the largest producer, accounting for almost 78% of the total monthly production by all countries across the world. Asian production totaled 78.214 Mt in March this year. The leading BFI producing country was China with total output of 60.455 Mt. The other major producers in the region were Japan (6.707 Mt), India (6.237 Mt) and South Korea (3.689 Mt).

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The North American BFI output edged higher from 2.698 Mt in February to 3.030 Mt in March 2018. The key producers were the U.S. (2.030 Mt), Canada (590,000 tonnes) and Mexico (410,000 tonnes). Meantime, South American blast furnace iron output too was up month-on-month from 2.400 Mt to 2.693 Mt.

The EU-28 region recorded an output of 8.387 Mt in March, rising by more than 10% from the Feb ’18 output of 7.603 Mt. The Other European countries too recorded marginal jump in output. The output by the CIS region countries totaled 6.308 Mt during the month. The monthly BFI output by the Oceania region totaled 359,000 tonnes.