According to the preliminary data released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) on October 21, in September this year global crude steel output amounted to 111.75 million metric tons, increasing by 0.9 percent year on year and down by one percent compared to the revised August output level. September was the fourth consecutive month in which world crude steel output saw a month-on-month decrease.
In September this year, Asia produced 69.11 million metric tons of crude steel - down two percent, the EU's output amounted to 14.29 million metric tons - up 3.7 percent, North America produced 9.34 million metric tons - up 18.3 percent, South America's production came to 3.68 million metric tons - down 2.6 percent, and the CIS's crude steel output totaled 8.71 million metric tons - down 1.5 percent, all compared to September 2009.
Meanwhile, in the January-September period of 2010, world crude steel output rose by 19.4 percent year on year to 1.05 billion metric tons.
In September, the world crude steel capacity utilization rate of the 66 countries surveyed rebounded to 74.4 percent, up from 73.3 percent in August this year, its lowest level in 2010, and down 3.8 percentage points from September 2009.
In September, China's crude steel production totaled 47.95 million metric tons, a drop of 5.9 percent, while Japan produced 9.23 million metric tons of crude steel, up 11.7 percent, both compared to the same month last year. South Korea showed an increase of 3.2 percent from September 2009, producing 4.66 million metric tons of crude steel in September this year. India, on the other hand, produced 5.64 million metric tons of crude steel in the given month, up 6.6 percent year on year.
In the EU, Germany's crude steel production for September was 3.31 million metric tons, with an increase of 4.1 percent compared to September 2009. In September this year, Spain produced 1.4 million metric tons of crude steel - down 1.2 percent, France's crude steel output was 1.26 million metric tons - down 0.7 percent, and Italy's crude steel production totaled 2.33 million metric tons - up 19.8 percent, all compared to the same month last year.
Turkey produced 2.51 million metric tons of crude steel in September this year, with a 17.9 percent increase over the same month in 2009, while Iran's crude steel output improved by 16.5 percent year on year, reaching 1.06 million metric tons.
In the given month, the US produced 6.65 million metric tons of crude steel, with an increase of 15 percent compared to September 2009.
Brazilian crude steel production stood at 2.69 million metric tons in September, 1.2 percent lower than in September 2009.
In the ninth month of 2010, Russia produced 5.6 million metric tons of crude steel, up 3.3 percent year on year, while Ukraine's crude steel production for the month was 2.4 million metric tons, 12.3 percent lower than the same month last year.
