Global crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) was 2.5% lower year-on-year at 152.7-million tonnes in July.
Worldsteel notes that because of the ongoing difficulties presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, many of July's figures are estimates that may be revised with the production update for August.
South Africa's production decreased by 29.3% year-on-year to 329 000 t.
However, the world's biggest steel producer China increased its output by 9.1% year-on-year to 93.4-million tonnes in July.
Japan produced six-million tonnes of crude steel in July, a 27.9% year-on-year decrease, while South Korea’s steel production for July was 5.5-million tonnes, down 8.3% year-on-year.
Germany produced 2.4-million tonnes of crude steel, representing a 24.7% decrease, while overall European Union production fell by 24.4% to 9.8-million tonnes.
US production also decreased by 29.4%, to 5.2-million tonnes, while countries within the Commonwealth of Independent States (Canada, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and the US) decreased by an overall 5.8% to 8.1-million tonnes.
Turkey’s crude steel production for July was 3.1-million tonnes, representing a 7.4% increase compared with that of July 2019.