World Crude Steel Production Surged 5.4% in May

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The world crude steel production continued to make gains during the month of May this year. The latest production statistics released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) indicates that global crude steel output by 64 countries reporting to it was higher by 5.4% in May ’19 as compared with the previous year. The monthly output totaled 162.744 million tonnes (Mt) in May this year.

The production growth was led by China, which saw its output increase by nearly 10% year-on-year to 89.091 Mt The country accounted for nearly 55% of the global crude steel production during the month. The Asian region reported a production increase of 7.6% over the previous year, mainly driven by China, India, South Korea and Vietnam.

The U.S. produced 7.653 Mt of steel during the month, higher by 5.4% upon comparison with May ’18 output. Meantime, the Canadian output surged higher by 12.8% year-on-year from 1.019 Mt to 1.150 Mt. The North American region saw its production increase by 4.5%. Meantime, the South American production also increased, growing by 2.1% to 3.537 Mt in May ’19.

The European region saw 2.8% drop in production in May this year. The CIS region too saw marginal production decline of 0.5%. Also, production by Oceania region has declined by 4.1%. On the contrary, African and Middle East production increased by 8.5% and 1.6% respectively.

The cumulative steel output during the first five months of 2019 totaled 764.072 Mt, growing by 5% from the output of 727.510 Mt in Jan-May ’18.