On July 20, the World Steel Association (worldsteel), formerly the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI), announced world crude steel production results for June 2009 and for the first half of the current year.
According to the worldsteel report, world crude steel production for the 66 countries surveyed was 99.82 million mt in June, down by 16 percent year on year, but up 4.08 percent compared to the previous month. Meanwhile, world crude steel production in the first half of 2009 totaled 549.26 million mt, decreasing by 21.3 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.
The worldsteel data show that China continued to produce almost half of the world's crude steel output in the first six months of 2009, with 266.58 million metric tons. At the same time, China and India are the only major steelmaking countries which increased their crude steel outputs in the first half of the year, by 1.2 percent and 1.3 percent respectively, compared to the same period of 2008.
With respect to crude steel production by region, in the first half of 2009 the highest year-on-year decrease was recorded in North America, where output fell by 48.5 percent, followed by the European Union with a 43.2 percent decrease.
On July 13, MEPS, an independent supplier of steel market information, forecast the total world steel output in 2009 at 1.165 million metric tons, taking into account the latest improvements seen in steel-using industries such as automotive and construction. This equates to a decrease of 12 percent on the previous year's result and, since the projected figure is almost double the tonnage produced in the first six months, it can be said no significant progress is expected within the current year.
