Sharp increase in worldwide crude steel production in March
Crude steel production worldwide reached a record high tonnage of 79.6 million metric tons in March 2003, being the highest ever figure obtained so far. This represents a 11.5% increase over the February 2003 results. Crude steel produced worldwide during the first quarter of the year now amounts to 226.8 million metric tons. The increase recorded during the first three months of the year is 8.8% or 18.3 million in terms of tonnage. In the Asian region a total of 34.6 million metric tons have been produced with a rise of 11% over the previous month. The most significant producer in Asia is China with 17 million metric ton output during March. This reveals a rise of 11% over the February results. Having this data on hand, for the first quarter of the year total we can say that Chinese production has surged 18.1% or by 7.4 million tons. EU follows Asia with 14.7million tons of output with a rise of 14.8% over February and 3.5% over March 2002 results. For the first three months total, we can say that total production is 3.3% higher than the correspondent period of previous year. Italy and Spain are leading with 2.4 million and 1.6 million metric tons of March production respectively. Turkey produced 1.57 million metric tons of crude steel in March 2003, exceeding its February production by 15%. 18% rise over last year same period results can be pronounced, while an increase of 25.6% is seen for the comparison of the first quarter results of this year and last year. CIS production is up by 14.4% over February, and also 4.8% higher than last year same period with Russia and Ukraine as the leading producers in the region. Russia produced a total of 5.1 million metric tons raising output by 13.5% over February and Ukraine produced 3.1 million metric tons with a rise of 16.8% over February 2003. Significant amount of production in North America came from the US with a total of 10.75 million metric tons rising its output by 7.8% over February and by 5.8% over last year same period. On the comparison of the first quarter, this year Q1 result of the US is 7.4% higher than that of last year. Canada and Mexico follow United States with total March output of 1.4 million metric tons and 1.3 million metric ton respectively. In South America, overall production of crude steel increased by 9.4% as compared to March 2002 level. Brazil is the leading producer in March with 2.64 million metric tons. As a result of March 2002-2003 comparison, a rise of 9.7% is seen in Brazil's crude steel production. Following is the breakdown of latest situation of annual and monthly comparison of crude steel output results on regional basis.
March February March %change 2 months
2003 2003 2002 Mar-03/02 2003 2002 %change
Other
Europe 4.052 3.542 3.830 5.8 11.512 10.246 12.4
EU(15) 14.732 12.831 14.236 3.5 40.698 39.402 3.3
C.I.S. 8.825 7.714 8.420 4.8 25.144 23.459 7.2
N.America 10.750 9.974 10.162 5.8 31.231 29.068 7.4
S.America 3.594 3.198 3.286 9.4 10.185 9.542 6.7
Africa 1.368 1.286 1.206 13.4 3.986 3.592 11.0
MiddleEast 1.022 1.025 973 5.1 3.121 2.901 7.6
Asia 34.644 31.211 30.864 12.2 98.939 88.416 11.9
Oceania 649 591 635 2.3 2.016 1.899 6.1
Total 79.636 71.373 73.611 8.2 226.832 208.525 8.8