Global crude steel production increased by 6.6% year-on-year to 154.9-million tonnes in May, the World Steel Association (worldsteel) reported on Monday.
China’s crude steel production increased by 8.9% year-on-year to 8.1-million tonnes in May, while Japan produced 9.1-million tonnes of crude steel in May – a 1.8% year-on-year increase.
India produced 8.8-million tonnes of crude steel in May, an increase of 7.6% compared with May 2017.
South Korea’s crude steel production was 6.2-million tonnes in May, an increase of 3% year-on-year.
In the European Union, Italy produced 2.2-million tonnes of crude steel, a 3.7% year-on-year increase.
Spain produced 1.3-million tonnes of crude steel, a 7% year-on-year increase, while France’s output decreased by 6.5% year-on-year to 1.3-million tonnes.
Turkey’s crude steel production for May was 3.3-million tonnes, up by 0.5% compared with that of May 2017.
Crude steel production in Ukraine was 1.7-million tonnes, up 2.9% year-on-year.
The US produced 7.1-million tonnes of crude steel, an increase of 3% compared with May 2017.
Brazil’s crude steel production for May was 2.7-million tonnes, down by 8.6% compared with May 2017.
Africa’s production increased by 4.1% year-on-year, with South Africa having produced 568 000 t of crude steel, a 2.6% year-on-year increase.
Worldsteel said the crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 64 countries reporting to the organisation was 77.7% in May – 4.2 percentage points higher than in May 2017 and one percentage point higher than in April.