According to the preliminary data released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) on February 21, in January this year global crude steel output amounted to 119.4 million metric tons, increasing by 5.3 percent year on year and up by 2.79 percent compared to the December output level. January was the second consecutive month in which world crude steel output saw a month-on-month increase.
In January this year, Asia produced 72.43 million metric tons of crude steel - up 3.3 percent, the EU's output amounted to 14.24 million metric tons - up four percent, North America produced 9.41 million metric tons - up 7.4 percent, South America's production came to 3.82 million metric tons - up nine percent, and the CIS's crude steel output totaled 9.65 million metric tons - up 13.7 percent, all compared to January 2010.
In January, the world crude steel capacity utilization rate of the 64 countries surveyed was 75.6 percent, up from 73.3 percent in December last year and down 0.4 percentage points from January 2010.
In January, China's crude steel production totaled 52.8 million metric tons, a slight increase of 0.5 percent, while Japan produced 9.66 million metric tons of crude steel, up 10.7 percent, both compared to the same month last year. South Korea showed an increase of 24.2 percent from January 2010, producing 5.63 million metric tons of crude steel in January this year. India, on the other hand, produced 5.61 million metric tons of crude steel in the given month, down 0.6 percent year on year.
In the EU, Germany's crude steel production for January was 3.67 million metric tons, with an increase of 4.4 percent compared to January 2010. In January this year, Spain produced 1.4 million metric tons of crude steel - up 4.1 percent, France's crude steel output was 1.22 million metric tons - up 7.6 percent, and Italy's crude steel production totaled 2.08 million metric tons - up 10.3 percent, all compared to the same month last year.
Turkey produced 2.74 million metric tons of crude steel in January this year, with a 33.4 percent increase over the same month in 2010, while Iran's crude steel output improved by 16.2 percent year on year, reaching 1.1 million metric tons.
In the given month, the US produced 6.82 million metric tons of crude steel, with an increase of 9.4 percent compared to January 2010.
Brazilian crude steel production stood at 2.8 million metric tons in January, 3.8 percent higher than in January 2010.
In the first month of 2011, Russia produced 5.92 million metric tons of crude steel, up 15 percent year on year, while Ukraine's crude steel production for the month was 3.05 million metric tons, 10 percent higher than the same month last year.
