World crude steel production down 6% for March 2020

In March 147.1Mt of crude steel was produced based on data received from the 64 countries that report to worldsteel.

Many of this month's figures, however, are estimates from national and regional associations due to the problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and maybe revised with next month's update, says worldsteel.

World crude steel production was 443Mt in the first three months of 2020, down 1.4% when compared to the same period in 2019.

Asia produced 315.2Mt of crude steel in Q1 2020, a decrease of 0.3% over Q1 2019. The EU produced 38.3Mt of crude steel in Q1 2020, down 10.0% compared to the same quarter of 2019.

North America’s crude steel production during the first three months of 2020 was 29.5Mt, down 4.0% compared to Q1 2019.

In China, 79Mt of crude steel was produced in March 2020, a decrease of 1.7% compared to last year. India estimates 8.7 Mt of crude steel production in March 2020, down 13.9%.

In Japan it is estimated that 8.2Mt of crude steel was produced in March 2020, down 9.7% on March 2019 figures. South Korea produced 5.8Mt of crude steel down 7.9%.

Germany is estimating it produced 2.9Mt of crude steel production in March 2020, down 20.9% on the same period last year, while Italy produced 1.4Mt, down 40.2% on March 2019. France estimates 1.2Mt of crude steel production in March 2020, a 13.2% decrease compared to March 2019. In Spain1.2 Mt of crude steel was produced in March 2020, down 14.6% on last year's figure.

The USA produced 7.2Mt of crude steel in March 2020, a decrease of 6% compared to March 2019.

The Russians estimate 5.9 Mt of crude steel production in March 2020, down 4.4% on March 2019 while the Ukrainians produced 1.8Mt of crude steel in March 2020, down 10.3% on 12 months ago.

Brazil produced 2.6Mt of crude steel production for March 2020, down by 8.2% on March 2019.

In Turkey crude steel production for March 2020 was 3.1Mt, up 4.1% on March 2019.