According to the preliminary data released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) on May 20, world crude steel production in April this year amounted to 121.65 million metric tons, increasing by 35.7 percent year on year and slightly down by 0.44 percent compared to the revised March 2010 output volume.
Meanwhile, in the first four months of 2010, world crude steel production rose 31.8 percent year on year to 467.8 million metric tons.
In April this year, Asia produced 77 million metric tons of crude steel - up 30.1 percent, the EU's output amounted to 15.42 million metric tons - up 64.1 percent, North America produced 9.45 million metric tons - up 70.8 percent, South America's production came to 3.52 million metric tons - up 37.6 percent, the CIS's crude steel output totaled 9.25 million metric tons - up 28.2 percent, all compared to April 2009.
In April, the world crude steel capacity utilization ratio of the 66 countries surveyed was 83.4 percent, rising by 18.9 percentage points as compared to April 2009.
In April, China's crude steel production totaled 55.4 million metric tons, an increase of 27 percent, while Japan produced 8.99 million metric tons of crude steel, up 56.7 percent, both compared to the same month last year. South Korea showed an increase of 22.9 percent from April 2009, producing 4.8 million metric tons of crude steel in April 2010. India, on the other hand, produced 5.35 million metric tons of crude steel, up 1.8 percent year on year.
In the EU, Germany's crude steel production for April 2010 was 3.88 million metric tons, with an increase of 107.2 percent compared to April 2009. In April this year, Spain produced 1.59 million metric tons of crude steel - up 36 percent, France's crude steel output was 1.45 million metric tons - up 76.4 percent, and Italy's crude steel production totaled 2.35 million metric tons - up 57.9 percent, all compared to the same month last year.
Turkey produced 2.4 million metric tons of crude steel in April this year, with a 21.5 percent increase over the same month in 2009, while Iran's crude steel output improved by 6.2 percent year on year, reaching 1.03 million metric tons.
In the given month, the US produced 6.8 million metric tons of crude steel, with an increase of 79.4 percent compared to April 2009.
Brazilian crude steel production stood at 2.71 million metric tons in April this year, 56.6 percent higher than April 2009.
In the fourth month of 2010, Russia produced 5.64 million metric tons of crude steel, up 28.9 percent year on year, while Ukraine's crude steel production for April 2010 was 2.97 million metric tons, 39 percent higher than the same month last year.
