Photo by: Duane
Faring better than the global average, which saw international crude steel production by the 65 countries reporting to the World Steel Association slump 2.1% year-on-year to 139-million tons in May, South African output remained flat year-on-year, at 550 000 t.
Output from the world’s largest crude steel producer, China, dropped 1.7% to 70-million tons in May, while Japan’s production declined 7% to 8.9-million tons and output from South Korea dipped 2.6% to 6-million tons for the month.
In the European Union, Germany produced 3.7-million tons of crude steel in May, a decrease of 5.4% compared with that of May 2014, while Italy’s output slumped 12.6% to 2-million tons and France narrowed its May contribution by 5.8% to 1.4-million tons.
Bucking the global trend, Spain managed to increase its steel production by 1.9% to 1.4-million tons, while Turkey was not so fortunate, with its May output down 4.3% year-on-year to 2.9-million tons.
Elsewhere, crude steel production from Russia dipped 1.9% to 6.1-million tons in May, faring better than neighbour Ukraine, whose year-on-year output slipped by a hefty 23% to 2.2-million tons.
In the Americas, the US produced 6.8-million tons of crude steel in May – a year-on-year decrease of 8.5% – while Brazil lifted its steel contribution by 3.8% to 3-million tons.
The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio for the 65 countries in May 2015 was 72.1% – 3.4 percentage points lower than that of May 2014.