South African crude steel production for October increased 10.2% year-on-year to 660 000 t, surpassing the 6.6% average production uptick of the 65 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) in the same month.
The bulk of October’s global crude steel production of 134-million tonnes came from China, which lifted output 9.2% to 65.1-million tonnes.
Elsewhere in Asia, Japan produced 9.5-million tonnes of the metal in October, an increase of 7.7% over October 2012, while South Korea’s crude steel production improved by 5.2% to 5.9-million tonnes.
In the EU, Germany produced 3.8-million tonnes of crude steel for the month, an increase of 1.9% compared with that produced in October 2012, while Italy’s production contracted by a not-insignificant 10.1% to 2.2-million tonnes.
In contrast, Spain’s crude steel production increased by a hefty 23.9% to 1.4-million tonnes, while France’s production, at 1.3-million tonnes, was down 1.8% on October 2012.
Turkey’s crude steel production for the month increased 6.9% to 3.1-million tonnes, while Russian output dropped 1.5% year-on-year to 5.7-million tonnes.
Meanwhile, the US produced 7.4-million tonnes of crude steel in October, an 8.7% increase compared with October 2012, worldsteel reported on Wednesday.
The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio for the 65 countries in October was 77.5% – a 2.5 percentage point jump on October 2012, and 1.8 percentage points lower than September 2013.