Global crude steel production in March this year decreased by 2.7 percent year on year, amounting to 138 million metric tons, while an increase of 7.8 percent 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 71.6 percent, four percentage points lower compared to March 2014 and 1.8 percentage points lower compared to the previous month.
In the January-March period of this year, global crude steel production decreased to approximately 400 million mt, down 1.8 percent year on year.
In March this year, crude steel output in Asia amounted to 94.33 million mt, down 1.3 percent, with 69.48 million mt produced by China, down 1.2 percent, 9.29 million mt produced by Japan, down 4.5 percent, 7.95 million mt produced by India, up ten percent, and 5.65 million mt produced by South Korea, down 11.8 percent - with all comparisons on year-on-year basis.
EU-28 countries produced 15.31 million mt of crude steel in March, down by 0.9 percent year on year. In March, Germany's output was 3.87 million mt, down 4.4 percent year on year, Italy's crude steel output was 2.09 million mt, declining by 9.8 percent year on year, and France's crude steel output amounted to 1.43 million mt, up three percent year on year.
Turkey produced 2.76 million metric tons of crude steel in March, with a 4.1 percent decrease from the same month in 2014. Iran's crude steel production in March this year amounted to 1.31 million mt, down one percent year on year. The CIS registered a crude steel output of 8.34 million mt in March of the current year, down 9.6 percent year on year, with Russia producing 5.99 million mt, increasing by 0.2 percent, and Ukraine producing 1.7 million mt, down 35.6 percent, both on year-on-year basis.
In North America in March, crude steel output totaled 9.34 million mt, down 9.8 percent year on year, with the US producing 6.55 million mt and Mexico producing 1.62 million mt, down 12.7 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively, on year-on-year basis. Crude steel output in South America in March amounted to 3.69 million mt, down 6.8 percent from March 2014, with Brazil's output totaling 2.77 million mt, decreasing by 7.4 percent year on year.