World crude steel production for the 66 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) was 124Mt in May.

Production was up 29.1% from May 2009, with China once again leading the way at 56.1Mt – up 20.7% compared to May 2009.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan produced 9.7Mt of crude steel in May 2010, up 50.2% y-o-y.

South Korea’s crude steel production for May 2010 was 5.2Mt, 28% up compared to the same month last year.

Germany’s crude steel production was 4.1Mt, an increase of 87.7%. The US produced 7.2Mt of crude steel in May 2010, an increase of 73.8%.

World crude steel production in May 2010 was 9.9% higher in comparison with May 2007, before the impact of the global economic crisis.

However, while China, South Korea and Turkey showed increased crude steel production in May 2010 compared to the same month 2007, the US, Italy, Spain and Japan are not yet back to pre-crisis production levels.

The EU is down 18%, North America down 14.8% and Latin America down 9.8% down on the five months to May total in 2007.