Global steel production recovery gains momentum in October

Crude steel production in the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) rose 7% on-year in October to 161.89 million tonnes, gaining further momentum from growth in August and September, Kallanish notes.

Chinese output continued its relentless growth, rising 12.7% in October to 92.2mt. Indian output finally rebounded to pre-coronavirus levels, increasing 0.9% to 9.06mt. Japanese and South Korean production however dropped -11.7% and -1.8% respectively to 7.2mt and 5.86mt. Vietnamese output surged 112% to 3.37mt.

The EU28 saw output drop -5.6% in October to 12.61mt, despite output in Germany rising for the first time since the pandemic struck, by 3.1% to 3.42mt. Italian output however dropped -4.6% to 2.12mt. Output grew significantly in Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden.

Turkish output continued its recovery, rising 19.4% in October to 3.21mt.

US production slumped -15.3% to 6.14mt but Brazilian output grew again, by 3.5% to 2.78mt.

CIS production rose 4.7% to 8.39mt, with Russian output estimated to have risen 4.3% to 6.05mt and Ukrainian output increasing 5.9% to 1.65mt.

Global steel output in January-October nevertheless still dropped -2% on-year to 1.51 billion tonnes.

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.