In June the 27 member states of the European Union (EU-27) produced 11.168 million metric tons of crude steel, up 3.52 percent compared to May, according to the latest worldsteel data. In June 2008 the crude steel output of the EU-27 was 18.418 million metric tons, 39.4 percent higher than in June this year.
At the same time, in the first half of the current year, the total crude steel production of the EU-27 amounted to 62.187 million metric tons, down 43.2 percent year on year. In the period in question, the EU-27 produced 11.32 percent of the total world crude steel output. Before the giant advance accomplished by China in terms of steel output, in 1998 for example, the share of European Union member states in world crude steel production was 24.6 percent.
In the first six months of 2009, none of the member states recorded an increase in its crude steel production. In the January-June period of the current year, the EU's largest steel producer Germany produced 13,768 million metric tons of crude steel, down 43.5 percent, Italy produced 9.756 million metric tons, down 42.8 percent, Spain recorded an output of 6.775 million metric tons, down 36.1 percent, France produced 5.854 million mt, down 41.5 percent and the crude steel output of the United Kingdom was 4.347 million mt, down 41.8 percent, all compared to the same period of 2008.
In the first five months of the year, the industrial production of the EU-27 member states declined dramatically, by 9.82 percent year on year. Meanwhile, according to the statistics released by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, in the first quarter of 2009 the construction output of the EU-27 declined by 11.3 percent year on year, and the decline continued in May, with a decrease of 9.6 percent year on year. The June 2009 data have yet to be announced.
On the other hand, as SteelOrbis previously reported, in the first half of 2009 new passenger car registrations in the EU-27 fell by almost 11 percent compared to the first six months of 2008. However, in June 2009 a year-on-year increase of 2.4 percent was recorded for new passenger car registrations, mostly due to incentive schemes.
* Crude steel production data are sourced from worldsteel.