World crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) was 139.4Mt in January 2018, a 0.8% increase when compared to January 2017.
China’s* crude steel production for January 2018 was 67Mt, down 0.9% compared to the same period last year. Japan's figure was up 0.3% to 9Mt while India also produced 9Mt of crude steel, up 2.5% on January 2017.
In the European Union, Italy’s crude steel production for January 2018 was 2Mt, up 5.3% on January 2017's figures. France produced 1.4 Mt of crude steel, an increase of 3%, while Spain produced 1.1Mt in January, down by 1% on January 2017.
Turkey’s crude steel production for January 2018 was up 7.6% to 3.2 Mt, while in the USA the figure was up 2.2% at 6.8Mt. In Latin America, Brazil's figure was up 1.3% at 2.9Mt and the overall crude steel capacity utilisation ration of the 64 reporting countries was 70%, 0.2 percentage points lower than in January 2017. Compared with December 2017, it is 0.7 percentage points higher.
* China's January production figures are a worldsteel estimate.
Source: worldsteel