According to the preliminary data released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) on September 21, in August this year global crude steel output amounted to 112.87 million metric tons, increasing by 4.2 percent year on year and down by 1.31 percent compared to the revised July output level. August was the third consecutive month in which world crude steel output saw a month-on-month decrease.
In August this year, Asia produced 72.32 million metric tons of crude steel - up 1.3 percent, the EU's output amounted to 12.14 million metric tons - up 15.4 percent, North America produced 9.35 million metric tons - up 24.9 percent, South America's production came to 3.75 million metric tons - up 1.6 percent, and the CIS's crude steel output totaled 8.71 million metric tons - down 6.1 percent, all compared to August 2009.
Meanwhile, in the January-August period of 2010, world crude steel output rose by 21.9 percent year on year to 931.98 million metric tons.
In August, the world crude steel capacity utilization rate of the 66 countries surveyed was 73.1 percent, reaching its lowest level in 2010, down from 74.4 percent in July this year and down 1.1 percentage points from August 2009.
In August, China's crude steel production totaled 51.64 million metric tons, a drop of 1.1 percent, while Japan produced 8.9 million metric tons of crude steel, up 7.1 percent, both compared to the same month last year. South Korea showed an increase of 6.4 percent from August 2009, producing 4.52 million metric tons of crude steel in August this year. India, on the other hand, produced 5.7 million metric tons of crude steel in the given month, up 6.4 percent year on year.
In the EU, Germany's crude steel production for August was 3.45 million metric tons, with an increase of 17.1 percent compared to August 2009. In August this year, Spain produced 1.12 million metric tons of crude steel - up 0.2 percent, France's crude steel output was 858,000 metric tons - up 4.2 percent, and Italy's crude steel production totaled 1.09 million metric tons - up 45.4 percent, all compared to the same month last year.
Turkey produced 2.55 million metric tons of crude steel in August this year, with a 11.3 percent increase over the same month in 2009, while Iran's crude steel output improved by 8.9 percent year on year, reaching 951,000 metric tons.
In the given month, the US produced 6.86 million metric tons of crude steel, with an increase of 23.7 percent compared to August 2009.
Brazilian crude steel production stood at 2.89 million metric tons in August, 7.8 percent higher than in August 2009.
In the eighth month of 2010, Russia produced 5.6 million metric tons of crude steel, down six percent year on year, while Ukraine's crude steel production for the month was 2.4 million metric tons, 10 percent lower than the same month last year.
