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While global crude steel production nudged up 1.9% year-on-year in June, South Africa’s output continued to decline, falling by 7.1%, the World Steel Association (worldsteel) reported on Monday.
According to the organisation’s latest production figures, South Africa’s steel output is estimated to have fallen to 550 000 t last month, from an estimated 570 000 t in May and 592 000 t in June last year.
The June 2013 performance was 20.6% below the 693 000 t reported in the same month in 2011.
Globally, steel production increased to 132-million tonnes in June, and increased by 2% in the first half of the year.
While Asia showed the greatest first-half production improvement, lifting its crude steel output by 5.5%, other regions recorded negative growth in the first six months of the year.
European Union (EU) countries produced 5.1% less steel in the first half than in 2012, while steel production from North and South America dropped by 5.8% and 4.6% respectively. The Commonwealth of Independent States region also showed a decrease of 3%.
China’s crude steel production for June improved by 4.6% year-on-year to 64.7-million tonnes, while elsewhere in Asia, Japan produced 9.3-million tonnes of crude steel for the month, an increase of 0.9% compared to the same month last year.
South Korea’s crude steel production was 5.5-million tonnes in June, down by 5.4% year-on-year.
In the EU, Germany’s steel production for the month dropped by 2.2% to 3.7-million tonnes, while steel output from Italy contracted by an alarming 10.3% to 2.2-million tonnes in June.
In contrast, France increased its year-on-year output for June, achieving 1.4-million tonnes of crude steel production, while Turkey’s production for June also increased by a slight 0.5% to achieve three-million tonnes.
Meanwhile, Russia produced 5.7-million tonnes of crude steel, a decrease of 0.8% compared to the same month last year, while Ukraine’s production for June lifted by a substantial 7.8% to 3.1-million tonnes.
Production from the US contracted by 0.2% to 7.2-million tonnes in June, while Brazil’s June production of 2.8-million tonnes represented a 2.7% year-on-year improvement.
The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio in June for the 64 countries reporting to worldsteel declined slightly to 79.2% from 79.6% in May 2013. Compared to June 2012, this was a 1.5 percentage-point drop.