Global crude steel output slides in April

The World Steel Association (worldsteel) says that global crude steel output from its 64 reporting countries dipped year-on-year in April 2020 to 137.1 million tonnes, down by -13.0%, Kallanish notes. “Due to the ongoing difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, many of this month’s figures are estimates from national and regional associations, which may be revised with next month’s production update,” the association says.

China produced 85.0mt in April, an increase of 0.2% y-o-y, and representing 62% of the world’s crude steel output in the month.

Estimated crude steel production in India was 3.1mt, down by a whopping -65.2% on-year, whilst output in Japan fell by -23.5% to 6.6mt on the same basis. South Korean estimated production fell by -8.4% y-o-y during the month to 5.5mt.

In the EU28 total crude steel production fell by 22.9% y-o-y to an estimated 10.7mt in April. Estimated output in Germany moved down by -10.7% to 3.0mt. Estimated production in Italy was decimated again on-year, falling by -30.7% to only 1.3mt. Estimated French crude steel output dipped on-year by -37.9% to 0.8mt. Spanish output fell by -48% to 0.7mt same basis. The EU28 total figure still include UK crude steel output, Kallanish notes.

Turkish production was 2.2mt in April, down by -26.3% y-o-y.

US crude steel output was 5.0mt in the month, down by -32.5% y-o-y. Brazilian crude steel production was 1.8mt, down by -39.0% on April 2019.

Russian estimated production was an estimated 4.7mt in April, -19.4% down on-year. Ukraine’s output also fell meanwhile to 1.3mt, down by -30.9%, same basis.

For antitrust reasons worldsteel no longer produces a monthly global capacity utilisation ratio. Information on capacity can be found on the OECD website, worldsteel says.