World Crude Steel Production Surged by 5.8% in July

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The crude steel production by 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) totaled 154.6 million tonnes (Mt) in July ’18. The production reported a jump of 5.8% when compared with July last year, after surging higher by 4.6% during the first half of 2018. The cumulative steel output during the first seven months of 2018 too reported 5% increase over the previous year. Also, the crude steel capacity utilization ratio of these 64 countries in July 2018 was 77.5%, lower by 1.4% when compared with the prior month.

The crude steel production totaled 154.576 million tonnes (Mt) in July 2018, up by 5.8% when compared with the same month a year before. The steel production by world countries had totaled only 146.105 Mt in July 2017. The crude steel output during the first seven months of the year totaled 1.0384 billion tonnes, higher by 5.0% when compared with the output of 988.587 Mt in Jan-July ’17.

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Region-wise, Asia was the largest steel producer. The regional output totaled 108.984 Mt in July ‘18, an increase of 6.3% over the previous year. The region accounted for more than 70% of the global output. The Chinese production surged higher by 7.2%. India overtook Japan to emerge as the second largest regional producer.

The Middle East region reported biggest jump in monthly production. The regional output surged higher by 16.8% over the previous year. The African production too was up by 14.3%. The output by Oceania region too was up by 12.3%. The South American and North American output have increased by 7.7% and 2.7% respectively. The U.S. output was up by 4.5%, whereas the Canadian production declined by 9.3%. The European output climbed higher by 3.9%. However, the output by other European countries including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Norway, Serbia and Turkey declined marginally by 0.9%.