French steel output plummets

French crude steel production plunged again year-on-year in April after a strong decline in March. This follows a hike in January and a decline in February, Kallanish learns from data released by the Federation Française de l’Acier (FFA).

Crude steel output declined by as much as -54.9% y-o-y in April to 581,000 tonnes. This is down from 1,288,000t in April 2019, the association says.

Over the first four months of 2020 French crude steel output also fell significantly y-o-y, by -22.1% to average just over 1 million tonnes/month. This is down from 1,289,000 t/month in January-April 2019, FFA says.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, 2019 output had dipped by -6.1% on-year to 1,204,000 t/month. This was down from 1,282,000 t/month in 2018, which in turn fell from 1,292,000 t/month in 2017, the FFA says.