Data released by the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) show that global crude steel production rose 4.9 percent year on year to 88.95 million metric tons in February 2006. China is again the largest steel-producing country with crude steel production of 29.5 million metric tons in February, an increase of 17 percent from a year earlier. Japan's crude steel production rose 2.6 percent year on year to 8.9 million metric tons. Total production in the Asia region amounted to 46.7 million metric tons, an increase of 12.1 percent from a year earlier. Crude steel production in Turkey reached 1.7 million metric tons in February, up 7.1 percent year on year. Italy produced 2.6 million metric tons of crude steel in February, an increase of 3.4 percent from a year earlier. Total production in France rose 2.5 percent year on year to 1.7 million metric tons. Germany's crude steel production rose 0.6 percent year on year to 3.7 million metric tons. Brazil's crude steel production fell 17.7 percent year on year to 2.1 million metric tons in February.
Global crude steel production (in thousands of metric tons) February January February %change 2 months 2006 2005 2005 Feb-06/05 2006 2005 %change Other Europe 2.246 2.417 2.189 2.6 4.663 4.556 2.4 EU (15) 13.521 13.742 13.448 0.5 27.263 28.129 -3.1 EU (25) 15.382 15.800 15.325 0.4 31.182 32.064 -2.8 C.I.S 8.540 9.456 8.451 1.1 17.996 17.958 0.2 N.America 9.812 10.756 10.288 -4.6 20.567 21.387 -3.8 S.America 3.217 3.699 3.667 -12.3 6.916 7.304 -5.3 Africa 1.264 1.463 1.367 -7.5 2.727 2.797 -2.5 MiddleEast 1.166 1.270 1.195 -2.4 2.436 2.356 3.4 Asia 46.651 48.644 41.633 12.1 95.295 85.951 10.9 Ocenia 674 755 662 1.8 1.429 1.394 2.5 Total 61 88.951 94.261 84.777 4.9 183.212 175.767 4.2 countries