China is leading the worldwide steel production

China is leading the worldwide steel production

The crude steel production in China during the month of June amounted to 18.42 million metric tons. This is a rise of 23.5% over the last year same period. The June production brings the first six month total to 103.15 million tons this year. Based on these figures, China appears to reach 200 million crude steel production by the end of the year. This will make the country the biggest steel producer worldwide in the year 2003. Within the first half of last year Chinese crude steel output was 85.25 million tons. This means a significant increase over the last year production as compared to this year's more than 103 million. The percentage of increase over the last year figures is 21%. Other countries in the region reporting their crude steel production to IISI periodically, namely India, Japan and South Korea also raised their production in the first half. In terms of tonnage, Japan follows China with a total output of 55 million mts in the first half of 2003. The percentage of increase over the last year same period in Japan is, however, 5.2. South Korea produced 22.8 million mts in the first half and India 15.5 million mts. The total six-month crude steel production in the region amounts to 205.97 million mts, rising by 12.6% over the last year and accounting for almost the half of the worldwide crude steel production in the first half.