World crude steel production reached 143.3-million tonnes in May, a 2% year-on-year increase, the World Steel Association (worldsteel) reports.
South Africa’s output, however, dropped by 3.5%, from 581 000 t in May 2016, to 561 000 t, indicating the ongoing challenges facing the local steel industry.
Africa’s production increased 10.5% year-on-year to 1.17-million tonnes, boosted by a 37.4% year-on-year increase in Egypt’s output to 530 000 t.
Meanwhile, China’s crude steel production for May was up 1.8% to 72.3-million tonnes, an increase of 1.8% compared with May 2016. Japan produced nine-million tonnes of crude steel in May, an increase of 0.1% year-on-year.
In the European Union, Germany produced 3.8-million tonnes of crude steel, a decrease of 1.4%, while Italy’s production fell 4.1% to 2.1-million tonnes. France produced 1.4-million tonnes of crude steel, a 21.5% increase compared with May 2016, while Spain also recorded a 3.7% year-on-year drop in production to 1.2-million tonnes.
The US experienced a marginal 0.2% year-on-year increase in steel production to seven-million tonnes, while Brazil’s crude steel production for May was 2.9-million tonnes, up by 13.2% on May 2016.
The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 67 countries reporting to worldsteel was 71.8% in May. This is 0.5 percentage points higher than in May 2016 and 1.8 percentage points higher than in April.