Data released by the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) show that global crude steel production rose 8.8 percent year on year to 101.4 million metric tons in September 2006. China is again the largest steel-producing country with crude steel production of 36.2 million metric tons in September, an increase of 18.5 percent from a year earlier. Japan's crude steel production rose 4.8 percent year on year to 9.6 million metric tons. Total production in the Asia region amounted to 55 million metric tons, an increase of 14 percent from a year earlier. Total crude steel production in the European Union was 15.7 million metric tons in September. Germany produced 4.03 million metric tons, Italy 2.6 million metric tons and France 1.6 million metric tons. Brazil's crude steel production rose 6.5 percent year on year to 2.8 million metric tons in September.
Global crude steel production (in thousands of metric tons) September August September %change 9 months 2006 2006 2005 Sept-06/05 2006 2005 %change Other Europe 2.829 2.805 2.579 9.7 24.890 22.579 10.2 EU (15) 13.601 12.490 13.622 -0.1 129.007 123.528 4.4 EU (25) 15.725 14.511 15.404 2.1 147.997 139.879 5.8 C.I.S 9.751 10.191 9.372 4.0 88.895 83.378 6.6 N.America 10.690 11.183 10.391 2.9 100.377 94.141 6.6 S.America 4.033 4.080 3.703 8.9 33.817 33.836 -0.1 Africa 1.432 1.387 1.450 -1.2 12.631 13.237 -4.6 MiddleEast 1.180 1.217 1.236 -4.5 11.056 10.906 1.4 Asia 54.996 55.620 48.262 14.0 477.200 421.899 13.1 Oceania 721 761 747 -3.5 6.527 6.507 0.3 Total 101.357 101.755 93.143 8.8 903.389 826.361 9.3 62 countries