In December last year, Germany's crude steel output amounted to 3.06 million metric tons, increasing by 1.4 percent year on year and decreasing 12.5 percent as compared to the previous month, according to the information provided by the German steel federation Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl (WV Stahl).
Meanwhile, Germany's crude steel production for the whole of 2012 was 42.6 million metric tons, falling by 3.7 percent as compared to previous year, utilizing 84 percent of national production capacity.
The federation said that the signs of stabilization in the steel industry have intensified recently, pointing to the year-on-year increase in output in December 2012 and the almost one percent year-on-year increase recorded in the fourth quarter of last year to 10.2 million mt. Germany's crude steel production had trended down on year-on-year basis in each of the previous four quarters.
The German Steel Federation continues to expect largely stable production in 2013 with just a slight upward movement (43 million mt), without any radical recovery.
On the other hand, in the January-November period of 2012 Germany's total hot rolled steel product output amounted to 34 million metric tons, decreasing four percent year on year, including 22.1 million metric tons of flat steel products - down 5.9 percent year on year, and 11.9 million metric tons of long steel products - down 0.3 percent year on year.