South African crude steel output for May contracted 13.5% after having recorded significant growth in the preceding months.
The World Steel Association (worldsteel) reported on Friday that South Africa’s crude steel output declined from 711 000 t in May 2013 to 615 000 t in May this year.
The country had outperformed global steel production in February and March, increasing crude steel production by 19.3% to 555 000 t in February and 21.1% to 615 000 t in March, before contracting 2.4% year-on-year to 595 000 t in April.
For the five-month period to May 2014, output from South Africa rose 2.9% to 2.99-million tonnes.
World crude steel output for May recorded a 2.2% year-on-year uptick to 141-million tonnes, bringing output for the first five months of the year to 684-million tonnes – a 2.4% hike on the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the crude steel capacity used by the 65 countries reviewed was 78.5% in May – 0.7 percentage points lower than May 2013. Compared with April 2014, it was 0.2 percentage points lower.