On October 23, the World Steel Association (worldsteel) announced world crude steel production results for September and for the first nine months of the year.
According to the worldsteel report, world crude steel production for the 66 countries surveyed was 107.03 million mt in September, down 0.6 percent year on year, but up 0.5 percent compared to the previous month, continuing to show a steady increase since April this year. Meanwhile, world crude steel production in the January-September period totaled 866.04 million mt, decreasing by 16.4 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.
In September, China's crude steel production amounted to 50.71 million mt, up 28.7 percent compared to September last year, reaching the second highest volume of crude steel the country has ever produced in a single month. Japan produced 8.27 million mt of crude steel in September this year, down by 18 percent compared to the same month last year, while South Korea showed a decrease of 2.4 percent year on year, producing 4.44 million mt of crude steel. India's crude steel output in the month in question totaled 4.62 million mt, down 0.2 percent year on year.
In the EU, Germany's September crude steel output was 3.17 million mt, with a decrease of 21.7 percent, while Italy produced 1.89 million mt - down 30.8 percent, Spain produced 1.1 million mt - down 34.8 percent, and French crude steel output showed a decrease of 15.3 percent, producing 1.28 million mt, all compared to September 2008.
The US produced 5.38 million mt of crude steel in September, with a decrease of 31.4 percent, while Brazil produced 2.6 million mt of crude steel, down 13.7 percent, both compared to the same month last year.
Meanwhile, Russia's crude steel output in September this year was 4.86 million mt, a decrease of 20.3 percent from September 2008, while Ukraine produced 2.58 million mt of crude steel, 3.9 percent higher year on year.
Turkey produced 2.13 million mt of crude steel in September, 1.8 percent down from September last year.
In the month in question Iran produced 865,000 mt of crude steel, four percent more than in September 2008.
With respect to crude steel production by region, in the first nine months of 2009, the EU-27 produced 97.17 million mt of crude steel, down 39.3 percent, CIS countries produced 68.89 million mt of crude steel, down 27.7 percent, North America produced 56.88 million mt of crude steel, decreasing by 45.1 percent, while South America produced a total of 26.27 million mt, down 30.3 percent, all compared to the same period of the previous year. Meanwhile, the crude steel output of Africa reached 10.69 million mt in the same period, down 21.5 percent year on year. In January-September this year, the crude steel production of the Middle East totaled 12.48 million mt, up 2.2 percent, while Asia produced 568.81 million mt, down 2.2 percent, both compared to the corresponding period of 2008.
