Global crude steel output fell by 2% in May, Worldsteel says

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Crude steel output for the 65 Worldsteel member countries totalled 139 million tonnes in May.

China’s crude steel production saw a decrease of 1.7% year-on-year to 70 million tonnes last month.

Total crude steel output in Asia decreased by 1.8% year-on-year in May to 95 million tonnes, due to year-on-year declines in production of 7% in Japan and 2.6% in South Korea.

Output in the world’s second-largest producer, India, however, rose by 4% year-on-year to 7.7 million tonnes over the month.

In the European Union, steel output increased marginally by 0.7% year-on-year to 15.1 million tonnes in the same comparison.

Among the major steel producers in the EU, the UK, France and Spain showed a year-on-year increase in volumes, growing by 10.2%, 5.8% and 1.9% respectively.

However, May crude steel output fell in Germany by 5.4% year-on-year and in Italy by 12.6%.

Outside the EU, Turkey showed a 4.3% year-on-year fall in steel output to 2.9 million tonnes.

Russia produced 6.1 million tonnes of crude steel in May, down by 1.9% year-on-year, while output in Ukraine fell by 23% year-on-year in the period to 2.2 million tonnes.

In the Americas, May crude steel production was overall down year-on-year.

US output fell by 8.5% to 6.8 million tonnes while Mexican output decreased by 7.9% year-on-year to 1.5 million tonnes.

However, output in Brazil increased by 3.8% to 3 million tonnes and rose in Canada by 8.3% to 1.2 million tonnes.

Worldsteel’s estimated global utilisation rate in May was 72.1%, 3.4% lower than in the corresponding period last year.