Data released by the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) show that global crude steel production rose 7.4 percent year on year to 105.9 million metric tons in October 2006. China is again the largest steel-producing country with crude steel production of 37.7 million metric tons in October, an increase of 18 percent from a year earlier. Total production is highly likely to exceed 400 million metric tons this year. Japan's crude steel production rose 4.5 percent year on year to 10.1 million metric tons. Total production in the Asia region amounted to 57.3 million metric tons, an increase of 12.2 percent from a year earlier. Total crude steel production in the European Union was 17.4 million metric tons in October. Germany produced 4.2 million metric tons, Italy 3 million metric tons and France 1.6 million metric tons. Brazil's crude steel production rose 4.2 percent year on year to 2.9 million metric tons in October.
Global crude steel production (in thousands of metric tons) October September October %change 10 months 2006 2006 2005 Oct-06/05 2006 2005 %change Other Europe 2.925 2.829 2.662 9.9 27.798 25.241 10.1 EU (15) 15.168 14.392 14.797 2.5 145.296 138.325 5.0 EU (25) 17.351 16.527 16.769 3.5 166.480 156.649 6.3 C.I.S 10.065 9.751 9.945 1.2 98.885 93.956 5.2 N.America 10.730 11.255 10.893 -1.5 111.760 105.121 6.3 S.America 4.048 3.991 3.816 6.1 37.809 37.652 0.4 Africa 1.464 1.432 1.438 1.8 14.095 14.675 -4.0 MiddleEast 1.236 1.287 1.232 0.3 12.399 12.138 2.1 Asia 57.274 55.000 51.026 12.2 534.189 473.047 12.9 Oceania 761 721 742 2.6 7.278 7.249 0.4 Total 105.855 102.793 98.524 7.4 1010.694 925.728 9.2 62 countries