Global crude steel production for the 65 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) decreased by 2.7% year-on-year to 138-million tonnes in March.

China’s crude steel production decreased by 1.2% year-on-year to 69.5-million tonnes, while Japan’s output fell 4.5% year-on-year to 9.3-million tonnes.

In the European Union (EU), Germany produced 4.4% less steel in March at 3.9-million tonnes, while Italy’s output of 2.1-million tonnes of crude steel was 9.8% lower than that produced in March 2014. Output in France, however, increased by 3% year-on-year to 1.4-million tonnes.

Crude steel production in Turkey fell 4.1% year-on-year to 2.8-million tonnes.

The US produced 6.6-million tonnes of crude steel in March, a 12.7% year-on-year decrease. Crude steel production in Brazil also fell by 7.4% year-on-year to 2.8-million tonnes.

Africa’s crude steel production fell by 7.7% to 1.23-million tonnes in March, compared with the 1.33-million tonnes produced in March 2014, with production in South Africa down 6.9% year-on-year to 550 000 t. Egypt, however, increased its steel output by 8.7% year-on-year to 610 000 t.

Worldsteel further revealed that Asia’s steel production in the first three months of 2015, at 272-million tonnes, was down 1.1% year-on-year, while production in the EU fell by 0.6% to 43.7-million tonnes.

Crude steel production in North America fell by 6.4% year-on-year to 28.1-million tonnes for the first quarter of the year, while production in the Commonwealth of Independent States fell by 5.9% year-on-year to 24.8-million tonnes.

Africa produced 3.62-million tonnes of crude steel in the first three months of this year, 6.8% less than the 3.89-million tonnes produced in the first three months of 2014. South Africa produced 1.6-million tonnes of steel in the first quarter, 9.4% less than the 1.77-million tonnes produced in the first quarter of the prior year.

Meanwhile, the crude steel capacity utilisation ratio for the 65 countries was 71.6% in March, four percentage points lower than in March 2014 and 1.8 percentage point lower than in February.