Figures from worldsteel show that global crude steel production for January 2014 was 130Mt, a decrease of -0.4% compared to the same period last year.
These figures are compiled from data received from 65 countries that report to worldsteel, an organisation representing 170 steelmakers.
Crude steel production in China for was down -3.2% to 61.6 Mt, Japan produced 9.4 Mt, an increase of 6.1%, and South Korea’s was up 1.9% at 6Mt.
In Europe, Germany produced 3.7 Mt, an increase of 2.2%, Italy 2.2 Mt, up by 27.8% and Spain 1.1Mt, an increase of 11.1% on January 2013. The UK was up by 31.5% at 1.1Mt.
Turkey’s crude steel production for January 2014 was down -0.9% to 2.8 Mt.
Russia produced 5.9 Mt, an increase of 4.1% but Ukraine’s production was down -13.5% at 2.5 Mt.
In the USA, crude steel production totalled 7.3Mt, down 0.5%, and in South America, Brazil produced 2.7Mt, down by -1.4%.
The global crude steel capacity utilisation ratio was 74.4%, which was 2.5 percentage points lower than last year but 0.2 percentage points higher than December 2013.