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South Africa’s crude steel production contracted 2.7% year-on-year to 430 000 t during September, with output for the first nine months of the year down some 8.5% year-on-year to 4.6-million tonnes.
Global crude steel production by the aggregate 66 countries reporting to industry body, the World Steel Association (worldsteel), edged up 2% year-on-year in September to 132.9-million tonnes.
During the nine months to September, however, global output contracted 0.5% year-on-year to 1.19-billion tonnes, compared with the 1.2-billion tonnes achieved in the corresponding period in 2015, the latest data released by worldsteel on Friday showed.
Asia produced 825.9-million tonnes of crude steel during the first nine months of this year, an increase of 0.6% over the first nine months of 2015, with September’s output up 3.7% to 92.6-million tonnes.
China’s crude steel production for September 2016 increased 3.9% to 68.2-million tonnes, while Japan’s production contracted 1.5% to 8.4-million tonnes and South Korea’s output climbed 1.1% to 5.7-million in the month under review.
During the month of September, the 28 European Union countries delivered 13.2-million tonnes of crude steel and a total of 121.3-million in the first nine months of the year, representing a 4.8% dip compared with the same period in 2015.
Germany produced 3.2-million tonnes of crude steel in September, a year-on-year decrease of 3.9%.
Italy’s production decreased 5.3% to two-million tonnes and France produced 1.3-million tonnes, a 2.2% year-on-year increase.
Turkey’s crude steel production jumped 8.1% to 2.7-million tonnes in September.
Meanwhile, crude steel production from North America fell 1.4% to 83.9-million tonnes during the first nine months of the year and 4.7% to 8.9-million tonnes in September.
The US produced 6.3-million tonnes of crude steel in September, a decrease of 3.8% compared with September 2015.
Crude steel output from the Commonwealth of Independent States held steady at 76-million tonnes during the nine months to September; however, during the month of September, the region’s output declined 3.5% to 8.2-million tonnes.
In September, Russia produced 5.7-million tonnes, a 2.1% decline on the corresponding month the year before, while the Ukraine’s output, at 1.9-million tonnes, was down 8% year-on-year.
Brazil’s crude steel production for September was 2.6-million tonnes, up 3.1% when compared with September 2015.
The average capacity utilisation in September was 70%, marginally up on the 69.5% recorded in September 2015 and 1.5 percentage points higher than in August.