Worldwide crude steel production keeps rising in July
According to data recently released by the IISI, global crude steel production rose both for the month of July and first seven months of 2003, 7.7% and 8.2% respectively compared to same periods of 2002. Figures reveal that production recorded in July is projected as 79.9 million mts, due to the holiday season in the northern hemisphere and shows a slight increase with 0.9% over June 2003. China again maintained its growth in July and increased 20.3% compared to July 2002 with 18.4 million mts, which accounts for 22.9% of global steel production in July. Likewise, compared to first seven months of 2002 production grew up by 20.9%. Crude steel production in Asia remained almost unchanged with 35.8 million mts compared to June 2003, 51.2% of which was produced by China, however increased 12.2% over July and 12.5% over first seven months of 2002. India followed China with a significant increase of 14.1% compared to same month a year ago. CIS increased its production to 9.1 million mts by 5.6% over same month in 2002 and 7.1% compared to year-to-date figures of last year. Production in Russia which accounts for more than half of total production in CIS is followed by Ukraine that raised its production by 13.9% over July 2002. Other European countries rose production by 9.9% compared to same month in 2002. Meanwhile in Turkey crude steel output grew up to 1.6 million mts increasing year-to-date figures by 15.5% over same period in 2002. Elsewhere in most regions such as North and South America, and the EU, crude steel production remained steady compared to June this year, mostly because of holiday season as cited above. However, Germany is still the major crude steel producer in EU with 3.5 million mts accounting for 26.7% of total production in EU. Furthermore, Brazil raised its production to 2.7 million mts in July bringing year-to-date figures to 18 million mts up by 8.3% over same period in 2002.
July June July %change 7 months
2003 2003 2002 Jul-03/02 2003 2002 %change
Other
Europe 4.217 4.069 3.836 9.9 27.969 25.462 9.8
EU(15) 13.221 13.138 12.909 2.4 95.094 93.288 1.9
C.I.S. 9.120 8.923 8.637 5.6 60.938 56.910 7.1
N.America 10.517 10.462 10.414 1.0 73.405 70.703 3.8
S.America 3.759 3.631 3.468 8.4 24.975 23.042 8.4
Africa 1.401 1.370 1.282 9.3 9.579 8.389 14.2
MiddleEast 1.141 1.112 1.008 13.3 7.546 7.028 7.4
Asia 35.853 35.757 31.958 12.2 241.749 214.945 12.5
Oceania 674 683 713 -5.5 4.807 4.717 1.9
Total 79.903 79.146 74.224 7.7 546.062 504.483 8.2