According to the preliminary data released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) on April 20, world crude steel production in March this year amounted to 120.31 million metric tons, increasing by 30.6 percent year on year and up 11.16 percent compared to the revised February 2010 output volume. This was the highest monthly production volume reached since May 2008.
Meanwhile, in the first quarter of 2010, world crude steel production rose 29 percent year on year to 342.36 million metric tons.
In the first three months of this year, Asia produced 219 million metric tons of crude steel - up 27 percent, EU's output amounted to 42 million metric tons - up 37 percent, North America produced 27 million metric tons - up 53.8 percent, South America's production came to 10.94 million metric tons - up 38.9 percent, CIS's crude steel output totaled 25.53 million metric tons - up 17.8 percent, all compared to the corresponding period of 2009.
In March, the world crude steel capacity utilization ratio of the 66 countries surveyed was 80.2 percent, remaining unchanged compared to the previous month but up 15.3 percentage points as compared to March 2009.
In March, China's crude steel production totaled 54.97 million metric tons, an increase of 22.5 percent, while Japan produced 9.34 million metric tons of crude steel, up 62.8 percent, both compared to the same month last year. South Korea showed an increase of 29.6 percent from March 2009, producing 4.77 million metric tons of crude steel in March 2010. India, on the other hand, produced 5.53 million metric tons of crude steel, up 9.2 percent year on year.
In the EU, Germany's crude steel production for March 2010 was 3.96 million metric tons, with an increase of 91.49 percent compared to March 2009. In March this year, Spain produced 1.58 million metric tons of crude steel - up 33 percent, France's crude steel output was 1.48 million metric tons - up 40.1 percent, and Italy's crude steel production totaled 2.38 million metric tons - up 43.5 percent, all compared to the same month last year.
Turkey produced 2.19 million metric tons of crude steel in March this year, with a 19.7 percent increase over the same month in 2009, while Iran's crude steel output declined by 5.5 percent year on year, reaching 935,000 metric tons.
In the given month, the US produced 6.88 million metric tons of crude steel, with an increase of 74.2 percent compared to March 2009.
Brazilian crude steel production stood at 2.83 million metric tons in March this year, 63.4 percent higher than March 2009.
In the third month of 2010, Russia produced 5.53 million metric tons of crude steel, up 19.6 percent year on year, while Ukraine's crude steel production for March 2010 was three million metric tons, 25.8 percent higher than the same month last year.
