South African crude steel production declined by 4.7% year-on-year in June to an estimated 590 000 t, falling behind the 3.1% average production uptick of the 65 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) in the same month.

As a collective, the 65 countries, which accounted for about 98% of total world crude steel production, produced 137.12-million tonnes in June this year, up from 132.99-million tonnes produced in June of 2013.

On a six-month basis South Africa’s production increased by 0.8% to 3.56-million tonnes, up from 3.53-million tonnes during the prior corresponding period.

World crude steel production for the first six months of 2014 was 821.3-million tonnes, an increase of 2.5% compared with the same period in 2013, worldsteel noted, adding that the European Union (EU) countries showed an increase of 3.8%, while Asia and North America reported growth of 2.9% and 1.7% respectively in the first half of 2014.

Production from South America and the Commonwealth of Independent State countries dropped 1% and 2.6% respectively.

Meanwhile, worldsteel noted that China’s crude steel production for June 2014 amounted to 69.3-million tonnes, up 4.5% from June 2013.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan produced 9.1-million tonnes of crude steel in June 2014, a decrease of 1.7% from June 2013, while India’s crude steel production was 6.7-million tonnes, an increase of 0.8% compared with June 2013.

South Korea produced six-million tonnes of crude steel in June 2014, up by 10.8% year-on-year.

In the EU, Germany produced 3.6-million tonnes of crude steel in June 2014, showing an increase of 0.6%, while Italy produced 2.1-million tonnes, France produced 1.4-million tonnes and Spain produced 1.3-million tonnes.

Turkey’s crude steel production for June 2014 was 3.1-million tonnes, up 6.7% year-on-year, while Ukraine produced 2.6-million tonnes of crude steel, a decrease of 6% compared with the same month in 2013.

The US produced 7.2-million tonnes of crude steel in June 2014, an increase of 1.9% compared with June 2013.

Brazil’s crude steel production for June 2014 was 2.7-million tonnes, down 4.9% on the prior comparable period’s output.

Worldsteel also noted that the crude steel capacity utilisation ratio for the 65 countries in June 2014 was 78.3%, which was 0.1 percentage points lower than that of June 2013; however, compared with May 2014, it remained the same.