Steel production up in June

World crude steel production in the first six months of 2010 was 706Mt, 27.9% higher than the first six months of 2009.

All regions showed increased crude steel production during the first half of 2010 compared to the first half of 2009.

Although production in the first half of 2010 increased by 7.2% compared to the same period of 2007, just before the global economic crisis, most of the world has not recovered to pre-crisis levels.

Only Asia and the Middle East showed increased crude steel production compared to the first six months of 2007. Crude steel production in the EU, CIS, US and Canada is still more than 15% below 2007 levels.

China’s crude steel production for June 2010 was 53.8Mt, a 9% increase y-o-y. Elsewhere in Asia, Japan produced 9.4Mt of crude steel in June 2010, up 35.9% compared to the same month last year. South Korea’s crude steel production for June 2010 was 4.8Mt, 21.9% up compared to the same month last year.

In the EU, Germany’s crude steel production for June 2010 was 3.9Mt, an increase of 53.4% on June 2009. Italy produced 2.3Mt, up 32.8% y-o-y.

The US produced 7.2Mt of crude steel in June 2010, an increase of 65% compared to June 2009. Brazilian crude steel production was 2.9Mt, 46.8% higher than June 2009.

The world crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 66 countries in June 2010 declined again to 80.6% from 82.0% in May 2010. Compared to June 2009, the utilisation ratio in June 2010 increased by 8.3 percentage points.

More information www.worldsteel.org