Global steel output down 3% in January 2015, Worldsteel says

Paragraph entered by Atlantic migration, in order for SteelFirst articles to display correctly on Metal Bulletin.

Crude steel output in the 65 Worldsteel member countries totalled 133 million tonnes during the month.

Production in China dropped by 4.7% year-on-year over the period to 65.5 million tonnes.

Total crude steel output in Asia in January decreased by 3.9% year-on-year to 89.4 million tonnes. Both South Korea and Japan saw production decline, by 5% and 4% year-on-year, respectively.

In the European Union, output dipped by 11% year-on-year over the month to 14.4 million tonnes. Output in the biggest steel producing countries in the EU showed year-on-year declines in January: by 0.5% in Germany, by 11.3% in Italy, by 11.8% in Spain, by 1% in the UK and by 10.6% in France.

In Turkey, steel production dropped by 10.4% year-on-year during the month to 2.6 million tonnes.

Output in Russia showed a 6% year-on-year growth over the period to 6.1 million tonnes. Steel production in Ukraine was 1.9 million tonnes, down by 25.2% year-on-year.

In the Americas, steel production in January rose by 0.4% year-on-year 7.4 million tonnes in the USA, and by 7.7% year-on-year to 2.9 million tonnes in Brazil.

Worldsteel’s estimated global capacity utilisation rate was 72.5% in January, 4.4% lower than in the corresponding month in 2014.