Worldwide steel production rises in the first half of 2003

According to the latest worldwide crude steel production report released by the IISI, steel production in June increased by 5.9% compared to June 2002 at 78.6 million mts, where the increase in worlwide production excluding China is only 1.4%. Despite 3% decrease over May 2003 worldwide steel output for the first 6 months of this year increased by 8.2% or 35.3 million mts to 465.7 million mts. Crude steel production in Asia grew by 12.6% both for the month of June and for the first 6 months of 2003 to 35.8 million mts and 206 million mts respectively. China's steel production for June 2003 is recorded as 18.4 million mts with a significant increase of 23.5% over last year same month. Likewise, year-to-date steel output in China in the first half of 2003 grew up by 21% to 103.1 million mts compared to same period a year ago. India followed China with 11.9% increase over May 2002. This month steel output in US decreased 1.1% over last month and 2.5% over June 2002 at 7.4 million mts but increased by 3% in the first six months of the year at 46.1 million mts. On the other hand, situation is pretty better in South America as production in June 2003 rose up 7.5% to 3.6 million mts compared to June 2002 and increased by 8.4% in the first half of the year over same period in 2002 reaching to 21.3 million mts. It is understood that Brazil contributed to the increase recorded in the first half at 15.3 million mts which also is equivalent to an increase of 8.4% compared to first 6 months of 2002. Steel output for the month in Brazil is 2.6 million mts up by 7.1%. Output in EU is recorded as 13.2 million mts for June 2003, down by 1.9% over June 2002 which is due to decreases in Spain and Germany that cannot be offset by production increases seen in the UK, the Netherlands, Italy and France. Production figures for EU reveals a 1.9% increase in the first half compared to same period in 2002. Meanwhile, Turkey raised monthly production by 6.2% over June 2002 and six months steel production by 16.9% or 1.3 million mts compared to first 6 months of last year. Steel output in CIS was around 8.7 million mts in June up 3.9% over same month in 2002 and for the first half output rose 6.4% reaching to 51.6 million mts. Russia's steel production increased 5.3% over June 2002 and 6.6% in the first half to 30.3 million mts.


            June     May    June   %change        6 months
	   2003    2003    2002  Jun-03/02  2003    2002  %change
Other
Europe     4.083   4.183   3.878     5.3     23.766  21.626   9.9
EU(15)    13.237  14.034  13.497    -1.9     81.910  80.379   1.9
C.I.S.     8.650   8.938   8.322     3.9     51.595  48.497   6.4
N.America 10.110  10.280  10.426    -3.0     62.523  60.230   3.8
S.America  3.640   3.751   3.386     7.5     21.225  19.572   8.4
Africa     1.314   1.417   1.233     6.6      8.161   7.107  14.8
MiddleEast 1.119   1.111   1.009    10.9      6.423   6.020   6.7
Asia      35.752  36.339  31.754    12.6    205.967 182.983  12.6
Oceania      684     702     726    -5.8      4.142   4.012   3.2
Total     78.589  80.755  74.231     5.9    465.712 430.427   8.2