Global crude steel production falls 0.8% in January 2013

Global crude steel production totalled almost 125 million tonnes in January 2013, a 0.8% increase year-on-year, the World Steel Assn (worldsteel) revealed on Wednesday February 20.

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Production in January 2012, in comparison, was about 124 million tonnes, worldsteel said.

Asia
China’s crude steel production for January was up by 4.6% on the year to 59.3 million tonnes, from 56.7 million tonnes.

Japan, the world’s second-largest producer, saw a 2.7% increase to 8.9 million tonnes, compared with 8.63 million tonnes in January 2012.

South Korea experienced a slight decrease in crude steel production for January at 5.75 million tonnes, from 5.78 million tonnes.

Asia’s total crude steel production for January totalled 82.3 million tonnes, a 4% increase from the 79.2 million tonnes produced in January 2012, according to worldsteel’s statistics.

Europe
The EU27 reported a 5% drop in steel production to 13.5 million tonnes, compared with January 2012’s 14.2 million tonnes.

Slovakia helped to offset the EU27 result with a 17.8% increase in its crude production to 388,000 tonnes in January, compared with 329,000 tonnes.

Most other EU27 country steelmakers in Central and Eastern Europe saw double-digit decreases in their crude production figures, however, worldsteel statistics showed.

Other European states reported a 9.6% decrease in January crude steel production to 3.02 million tonnes, from 3.33 million tonnes.

Serbia’s steel production declined by the largest percentage, going down by 100% to nil in January, compared with 79,000 tonnes in the corresponding month in 2012.

Conversely, Macedonia’s crude production saw a triple-digit increase for January to an estimated 30,000 tonnes, from 11,000 tonnes in January 2012.

CIS
In the CIS region, Kazakhstan’s decline helped push down total crude production to 8.9 million tonnes in January, compared with the 9.5 million tonnes produced in the same month in 2012.

Crude production in Kazakhstan almost halved to 170,000 tonnes in January, from the 319,000 tonnes that the Central Asian state produced in January 2012.

North America
North American crude production fell by 3% year-on-year to 10.1 million tonnes, against 10.5 tonnes.

Despite increases in all other North American producers, crude steel production in the USA fell by 5.8% to 7.26 million tonnes in January, from 7.7 million tonnes, according to worldsteel.

South America
South America, meanwhile, produced 3.61 million tonnes of crude steel, a 3.2% decrease from 3.73 million tonnes.

Africa-Middle East
Production in Africa and the Middle East was down by 2.6% to 2.85 million tonnes, from 2.93 million tonnes.

Egypt helped to offset the decrease with a 15.1% rise to 590,000 tonnes in January, after producing 513,000 tonnes in the same month in 2012.

Australia-New Zealand
Crude steel production in Australia and New Zealand totalled 491,000 tonnes in January, practically unchanged from the 490,000 tonnes produced the previous year.

The 62 countries reporting to worldsteel account for 98% of global crude production, the association said.