World crude steel production for the 62 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) was 132Mt in March 2012, an increase of 1.8% compared to March 2011. Production for the first quarter of 2012 was 377Mt, 1.1% higher than the first quarter of 2011.

In the first three months of 2012, Asia produced 241.7Mt of crude steel, an increase of 1.5% over Q1 2011, EU countries produced 43.9Mt, down -3.9% and North American production was 31.2 Mt, 6.7% higher than the first three months of 2011. The USA produced 7.8Mt of crude steel in March 2012, up 5.4% on March 2011.

China’s crude steel production for March 2012 was 61.6Mt, an increase of 3.9% compared to March 2011.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan produced 9.3Mt of crude steel in March 2012, up 2.3% compared to the same month last year and South Korea’s production was 6.0 Mt, an increase of 3.2%.

Within the EU, Germany produced 3.9Mt of crude steel in March, a decrease of -3.1% on March 2011. Italy produced 2.7Mt, up 4.5, France produced 1.5Mt, an increase of 3.8% and Spain’s crude steel production was 1.3Mt, down -19.5% compared to the same month in 2011.

In contrast, Turkey’s crude steel production for March 2012 was 3.1Mt, an increase of 14.5% compared to March 2011.

Brazil’s crude steel production for March 2012 was 3.1Mt, 2.2% higher than March 2011.

The world crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 62 countries in March 2012 increased to 81.1%, 1.6% higher than February 2012. Compared to March 2011, the utilisation ratio in March 2012 decreased by -1.2%.


For a full listing of output visit http://www.worldsteel.org/statistics/crude-steel-production.html