Data released by the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) show that global crude steel production rose 13.5 percent year on year to 107.9 million metric tons in January 2007. China is again the largest steel-producing country with crude steel production of 38.4 million metric tons in January, an increase of 27.3 percent from a year earlier. Total production in the Asia region amounted to 58.4 million metric tons, up 20.1 percent a year ago. Germany produced 4.3 million metric tons of crude steel in January 2007, an increase of 25.6 percent year on year. France produced 1.7 million metric tons, a decline of 1.2 percent compared to the same month in 2006. Production in the UK was 1.1 million metric tons, 0.8 percent lower than January 2006. The European Union expanded to 27 member countries with the addition of Bulgaria and Romania from January 1, 2007. Brazil produced 2.7 million metric tons of crude steel in January, an increase of 4.9 percent compared to January 2006. Turkey's crude steel production rose 13.7 percent year on year to two million metric tons in January. Total production in the other Europe region was 2.4 million metric tons, an increase of 13.4 percent year on year. Russia and the Ukraine increased crude steel production 11.5 percent and 11.1 percent respectively. Russia produced 6.4 million metric tons of crude steel in January while the Ukraine produced 3.6 million metric tons. Total production in the CIS region amounted to 10.7 million metric tons in January, an increase of 11 percent year on year. Crude steel production in North America is estimated at 10.9 million metric tons in January. This is 0.5 percent lower than the same month last year. Production in the US is estimated at 8.3 million metric tons, an increase of 2.7 percent. Crude steel production in Canada is estimated at 1.1 million metric tons, a decrease of 18.9 percent.
Global crude steel production (in thousands of metric tons) January December January %change 2007 2006 2006 Jan-07/06 Other Europe 2.356 2.341 2.078 13.4 EU (15) 15.204 14.036 13.741 10.6 EU (27) 18.066 16.753 16.473 9.7 C.I.S 10.671 10.650 9.611 11.0 N.America 10.875 9.693 10.930 -0.5 S.America 3.817 3.804 3.733 2.2 Africa 1.622 1.508 1.622 7.5 MiddleEast 1.311 1.232 1.270 3.2 Asia 58.446 58.118 48.680 20.1 Ocenia 722 723 754 -4.3 Total 107.886 104.936 95.037 13.5 64 countries