According to the preliminary data released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) on August 20, in July this year global crude steel output amounted to 114.79 million metric tons, increasing by 9.6 percent year on year and down by three percent compared to the revised June output level.
In July this year, Asia produced 73.05 million metric tons of crude steel - up 5.7 percent, the EU's output amounted to 13.93 million metric tons - up 22.9 percent, North America produced 9.17 million metric tons - up 32.6 percent, South America's production came to 3.76 million metric tons - up 10.5 percent, and the CIS's crude steel output totaled 8.7 million metric tons - up 4.5 percent, all compared to July 2009.
Meanwhile, in the January-July period of 2010, world crude steel output rose by 25 percent year on year to 820.97 million metric tons.
In July, the world crude steel capacity utilization ratio of the 66 countries surveyed was 75.1 percent, declining significantly from 80.4 percent in June this year and up 2.7 percentage points from July 2009.
In July, China's crude steel production totaled 51.74 million metric tons, an increase of 2.2 percent, while Japan produced 9.22 million metric tons of crude steel, up 5.7 percent, both compared to the same month last year. South Korea showed an increase of 16.2 percent from July 2009, producing 4.76 million metric tons of crude steel in July this year. India, on the other hand, produced 5.75 million metric tons of crude steel in the given month, up 5.7 percent year on year.
In the EU, Germany's crude steel production for July was 3.49 million metric tons, with an increase of 29.7 percent compared to July 2009. In July this year, Spain produced 1.1 million metric tons of crude steel - up 18.5 percent, France's crude steel output was 1.45 million metric tons - up 30.7 percent, and Italy's crude steel production totaled 2.2 million metric tons - up 33.4 percent, all compared to the same month last year.
Turkey produced 2.38 million metric tons of crude steel in July this year, with a 1.3 percent increase over the same month in 2009, while Iran's crude steel output declined by four percent year on year, regressing to 857,000 metric tons.
In the given month, the US produced 6.7 million metric tons of crude steel, with an increase of 32.9 percent compared to July 2009.
Brazilian crude steel production stood at 2.95 million metric tons in July, 18.2 percent higher than in July 2009.
In the seventh month of 2010, Russia produced 5.6 million metric tons of crude steel, up 11.5 percent year on year, while Ukraine's crude steel production for the month was 2.41 million metric tons, 9.6 percent lower than the same month last year.
