World crude steel production in August showed an increase of 5.2 percent year on year, reaching 130 million metric tons, while a drop of one percent was observed on month-on-month basis, according to the World Steel Association (worldsteel).
In August this year, the average capacity utilization of steel mills across the globe was 75.4 percent, one percentage point higher compared to August 2012 and 1.4 percentage points lower compared to July of the current year.
In the meantime, total global crude steel production in the first eight months of the current year rose 2.3 percent compared to the same period of 2012, totaling 1.05 billion metric tons.
In August, crude steel output in Asia amounted to 88.86 million mt, up by 8.5 percent, with 66.28 million mt produced by China, up by 12.8 percent, 9.15 million mt produced by Japan, down by a slight margin of 0.6 percent, and 4.89 million mt produced by South Korea, down by 13.1 percent - with all comparisons on year-on-year basis.
EU-27 countries produced 12.03 million mt of crude steel in August, up 1.3 percent compared with August 2012. In August this year, Germany's output was 3.16 million mt, down by 6.3 percent year on year, Italy's crude steel output was 1.09 million mt, down 7.5 percent year on year, and France's crude steel output was 1.16 million mt, up 21.7 percent year on year.
Turkey produced 2.58 million metric tons of crude steel in August this year, with a 15.4 percent decrease from the same month in 2012.
Iran's crude steel production in August this year amounted to 1.29 million mt, up 13.2 percent compared to August 2012.
The CIS registered a crude steel output of 9.06 million mt in August, down two percent year on year, with Russia producing 5.80 million mt, decreasing 1.9 percent compared to August 2012, and Ukraine producing 2.78 million mt, up 4.1 percent on year-on-year basis.
In North America in August, crude steel output totaled 9.94 million mt, down 3.8 percent year on year, with the US producing 7.4 million mt and Mexico producing 1.48 million mt, down 2.9 percent and 2.3 percent respectively on year-on-year basis.
Meanwhile, crude steel output in South America in August amounted to 4.07 million mt, up by 6.6 percent year on year, with Brazil's output totaling 3.00 million mt, up 4.6 percent year on year.