World crude steel production up 4.8% in January: worldsteel

World crude steel production in January grew 4.8% year on year to 162.9 million mt for the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association, the group said Feb. 25.

Asian and Oceanic countries registered a production increase of 6.3% to 119 million mt, worldsteel said in a statement. China saw an increase of 6.7% to 90.2 million mt, while Indian production rose 7.2% to 10 million mt.

The 27 European Union member countries saw less production in January, slipping 0.4% to 11.2 million mt, although Germany, the largest European steel producer, bucked that trend and increased production 6% to 3.3 million mt.

In European countries outside the EU, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Turkey and the UK, production increased 11.2% to 4.4 million mt. Turkey triggered the increase with a jump of 12.7% year on year to 3.4 million mt.

North American production dropped 7% to 9.6 million mt.

African production moved down 7.9% to 1.2 million mt. Worldsteel includes output from Egypt, Libya and South Africa in its production tally, but not major producer Algeria.

South American production went up by 11.4% to 3.8 million mt, led by Brazil, the ninth-largest steel producer in the world, which saw production increase 10.8% to 3 million mt.

CIS production grew 4.5% to 9.2 million mt of crude steel.

— Annalisa Villa