World BFI Output Witnessed Modest Drop in June

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The monthly iron production data published by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) indicates that blast furnace iron (BFI) output by world countries declined modestly during the month of June 2018. This is the first month-on-month decline in production after three straight years of rise. However, the output surpassed 100 Mt for fourth month in a row.

According to worldsteel, the BFI output totaled 104.682 Mt in June this year, down marginally by 1.75% when compared with the prior month. The world countries had recorded a total BFI output of 106.546 Mt in May this year. Also, the combined BFI output during the first half of the year totaled 608.266 Mt.

Asia emerged as the world’s largest BFI producer. The regional BFI output totaled 83.386 Mt in June this year, marginally lower when compared with 84.652 Mt during the prior month. Among Asian countries, China continued to remain as the single largest producing nation. The Chinese BFI production totaled 65.879 Mt, accounting for more than 79% of the regional output. The country also accounted for nearly 63% of the total world output. The other key Asian producers were Japan (6.351 Mt) and India (5.890 Mt). The BFI output by the Asian region totaled 477.526 Mt during the first half of 2018.

The South American BFI output dropped from 2.458 Mt in May ’18 to 2.390 Mt in June, whereas the North American production too declined marginally from 2.950 Mt to 2.850 Mt over the previous month. Brazil was the largest producer in South America, accounting for nearly 90% of the total regional output. The U.S. output totaled 2.000 Mt, falling slightly from the previous month output of 2.072 Mt. Meantime, the output by the EU and Other Europe region totaled 7.768 Mt and 1.022 Mt respectively. The CIS region produced 6.271 Mt of BFI. The production by the Oceania region totaled 383,000 tonnes.