Global crude steel production in June this year increased by 1.7 percent year on year to 136.82 million metric tons, while a 0.2 percent decline was observed on month-on-month basis, according to the World Steel Association (worldsteel). In the given month, the average capacity utilization of steel mills across the globe was 75.4 percent, 1.2 percentage points lower compared to July 2013 and 2.9 percent lower compared to June of the current year.
In the meantime, total global crude steel production in the first seven months of this year rose 2.4 percent compared to the same period of 2013, amounting to 959.69 million metric tons.
In July, crude steel output in Asia amounted to 92.42 million mt, up 1.7 percent, with 68.32 million mt produced by China, up 1.5 percent, 9.3 million mt produced by Japan, unchanged compared to July last year, 6.96 million mt produced by India, up 1.7 percent, and 5.9 million mt produced by South Korea, up 6.2 percent - with all comparisons on year-on-year basis.
EU-28 countries produced 13.31 million mt of crude steel in July, down by two percent compared with July 2013. In July this year, Germany's output was 3.45 million mt, up 1.5 percent year on year, Italy's crude steel output was 2.03 million mt, down 3.6 percent year on year, and Spain's crude steel output amounted to 960,000 mt, up 5.9 percent year on year.
Turkey produced 2.82 million metric tons of crude steel in July this year, with a one percent increase from the same month in 2013.
Iran's crude steel production in July this year amounted to 1.45 million mt, up 11.4 percent compared to July 2013.
The CIS registered a crude steel output of 9.25 million mt in July this year, up 2.3 percent year on year, with Russia producing 6.02 million mt, increasing 8.1 percent, and Ukraine producing 2.49 million mt, down 11.7 percent, both on year-on-year basis.
In North America in July, crude steel output totaled 10.43 million mt, up two percent year on year, with the US producing 7.61 million mt and Mexico producing 1.60 million mt, up 2.3 percent and decreasing by 0.2 percent, respectively, on year-on-year basis.
Meanwhile, crude steel output in South America in July amounted to 4.01 million mt, up 1.1 percent from July 2013, with Brazil's output totaling 2.93 million mt, up 0.5 percent year on year.