Global crude steel production in February this year increased by 0.6 percent year on year to 124.99 million metric tons, while a 3.69 percent decline was observed on month-on-month basis, according to the World Steel Association (worldsteel). In the given month, the average capacity utilization of steel mills across the globe was 77.6 percent, two percentage points lower compared to February 2013 and 0.7 percentage points higher compared to January of the current year.
In the meantime, total global crude steel production in the first two months of the current year rose 1.6 percent compared to the same period of 2013, amounting to 261.69 million metric tons.
In February, crude steel output in Asia amounted to 83.71 million mt, up 0.6 percent, with 62.08 million mt produced by China, up 0.4 percent, 8.44 million mt produced by Japan, up 1.4 percent, and 5.29 million mt produced by South Korea, up 6.2 percent - with all comparisons on year-on-year basis.
EU-28 countries produced 13.88 million mt of crude steel in February, up by 4.7 percent compared with February 2013. In February this year, Germany's output was 3.56 million mt, up 4.2 percent year on year, Italy's crude steel output was 2.20 million mt, up 3.6 percent year on year, and Spain's crude steel output amounted to 1.19 million mt, up 10.2 percent year on year.
Turkey produced 2.67 million metric tons of crude steel in February this year, with a 0.7 percent increase from the same month in 2013.
Iran's crude steel production in February this year amounted to 1.26 million mt, up 5.1 percent compared to February 2013.
The CIS registered a crude steel output of 8.19 million mt in February this year, down 5.1 percent year on year, with Russia producing 5.34 million mt, decreasing 3.1 percent, and Ukraine producing 2.35 million mt, down 10.7 percent, both on year-on-year basis.
In North America in February, crude steel output totaled 9.13 million mt, down 2.7 percent year on year, with the US producing 6.69 million mt and Mexico producing 1.40 million mt, down 1.7 percent and 1.5 percent respectively on year-on-year basis.
Meanwhile, crude steel output in South America in February amounted to 3.38 million mt, down by 2.6 percent year on year, with Brazil's output totaling 2.61 million mt, up 1.2 percent year on year.