World crude steel production down 1.9% for first six months of 2016

The CIS showed an increase of 0.6% whereas both North America and the Middle East reported negative growth of 0.6% and 3.2% respectively in the first half of 2016. Crude steel production in Asia declined by 1.0% and by -6.1% in the EU 28. South American production was down 13.8% in the first six months of 2016 compared to the same period of 2015.

China’s crude steel production for June 2016 was 69.5 Mt, up 1.7% compared to June 2015. Elsewhere in Asia, Japan produced 8.8 Mt of crude steel in June 2016, up 2.7% compared to June 2015. South Korea’s crude steel production was 5.5 Mt in June 2016, down 6.7% on the previous year.

In the EU, Germany produced 3.7 Mt of crude steel in June 2016, down 2.1% compared to June 2015. Italy produced 2.0 Mt of crude steel, up 5.9% and France produced 1.3 Mt of crude steel, down 5.1% compared to June 2015. Spain produced 1.1 Mt of crude steel, down 13.7%.

Turkey’s crude steel production for June 2016 was 2.9 Mt, up 2.0% on June 2015.

Russia produced 5.8 Mt of crude steel in June this year, up by 2.5% over June 2015. Ukraine's crude steel production stood at 1.8Mt, down by 8.6%.

The United States produced 6.8 Mt of US crude steel production in June 2016 was down 0.1% at 6.8Mt while the figure for Brazil was 2.5Mt, down by 8.5% on June 2015.

The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 66 countries reporting to worldsteel in June 2016 was 69.4%. This is 3.3 percentage points lower than June 2015. Compared to May 2016, it is two percentage points lower.