According to the preliminary data released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) on July 20, world crude steel production in the first half of 2010 rose by 27.9 percent year on year to 705.82 million metric tons.
In the first half of this year, Asia produced 447.68 million metric tons of crude steel - up 23.4 percent, the EU's output amounted to 90 million metric tons - up 44.6 percent, North America produced 56.64 million metric tons - up 60.1 percent, South America's production came to 21.3 million metric tons - up 33.2 percent, and the CIS's crude steel output totaled 53 million metric tons - up 20.1 percent, all compared to the corresponding period of 2009.
Worldsteel noted that, although production in the first half of 2010 increased by 7.2 percent compared to the same period of 2007 before the global economic crisis, most of the world has not recovered to pre-crisis levels. Only Asia and the Middle East showed increased crude steel production compared to the first six months of 2007. Crude steel production in the EU, CIS, US and Canada is still more than 15 percent below the 2007 levels.
Meanwhile, in June this year global crude steel output amounted to 118.77 million metric tons, increasing by 18 percent year on year and down by 4.67 percent compared to May this year.
In June, the world crude steel capacity utilization ratio of the 66 countries surveyed was 80.6 percent, rising by 8.3 percentage points as compared to June 2009 and down from 82 percent in May this year
In June, China's crude steel production totaled 53.77 million metric tons, an increase of nine percent, while Japan produced 9.35 million metric tons of crude steel, up 35.9 percent, both compared to the same month last year. South Korea showed an increase of 21.9 percent from June 2009, producing 4.8 million metric tons of crude steel in June 2010. India, on the other hand, produced 5.35 million metric tons of crude steel, up 1.9 percent year on year.
In the EU, Germany's crude steel production for June 2010 was 3.86 million metric tons, with an increase of 53.4 percent compared to June 2009. In June, Spain produced 1.38 million metric tons of crude steel - up 16.7 percent, France's crude steel output was 1.46 million metric tons - up 31.4 percent, and Italy's crude steel production totaled 2.64 million metric tons - up 32.8 percent, all compared to the same month last year.
Turkey produced 2.5 million metric tons of crude steel in June this year, with a 13.8 percent increase over the same month in 2009, while Iran's crude steel output improved by 7.2 percent year on year, reaching one million metric tons.
In the given month, the US produced 7.12 million metric tons of crude steel, with an increase of 65 percent compared to June 2009.
Brazilian crude steel production stood at 2.85 million metric tons in June, 46.8 percent higher than June 2009.
In the sixth month of 2010, Russia produced 5.43 million metric tons of crude steel, up six percent year on year, while Ukraine's crude steel production for June 2010 was 2.47 million metric tons, 7.2 percent higher than the same month last year.
