After starting the year on a positive upward growth trend, South Africa’s crude steel production in March plunged 14.8% year-on-year to 536 000 t, with output during the first quarter of the year falling some 16.5% to 1.5-million tonnes.

Overall global crude steel production by the aggregate 66 countries reporting to industry body, the World Steel Association (worldsteel), continued to decline, albeit more slowly, contracting 0.5% year-on-year in March to 137-million tonnes.

During the first three months of the year, the reporting countries, which accounted for 99% of total world crude steel output, delivered 385.7-million tonnes, down 3.6% compared with the same period in 2015.

The European Union produced 40.9-million tonnes of crude steel in the first quarter of 2016, a 7% contraction on the corresponding quarter last year, and 14.1-million tonnes during the month of March, a dip of 8.7% on the corresponding month last year, the latest data released by worldsteel on Wednesday showed.

During March, Germany’s output decreased 1.6% year-on-year to 3.8-million tonnes, Italy’s steel output was down 3.5% to two-million tonnes, and France produced 1.1-million tonnes of crude steel, a 21.4% contraction compared with March 2015.

Meanwhile, Asia produced 263.6-milllion tonnes of crude steel in the March quarter, a decrease of 3.1% over the first quarter of 2015. However, the region registered an 0.8% uptick for March to 95-million tonnes.

China’s March output edged up 2.9% to 70.7-million tonnes, while Japan produced 8.6-million tonnes of crude steel in March 2016, a decrease of 6.8% compared with March 2015.

India produced 8.1-million tonnes of crude steel in March, an increase of 3.4% on March 2015.

North America’s crude steel production in the first three months of 2016 decreased 1.1% to 27.5-million tonnes, while its monthly output grew 4.9% year-on-year to 6.7-million tonnes.

In the first quarter of the year, the Commonwealth of Independent States produced 25-million tonnes of crude steel, decreasing by some 0.4% on the corresponding quarter last year, and 8.7-million tonnes in March, edging up 2.3% on the corresponding period the year before.

During the month under review, Russia produced six-million tonnes of crude steel, down 2% over March 2015, while Ukraine produced 2.2-million tonnes of crude steel, up 28.1% compared to the same month in 2015.

The average capacity utilisation in March was 70.5%, 1.3 percentage points lower than March 2015 and 3.9 percentage points higher than in February.