World crude steel production in June was 141Mt, up 3.2% increase compared to June 2016, according to figures produced by the 67 countries reporting the World Steel Association (worldsteel).

For the first six months of the year, world crude steel production was 836Mt, up 4.5% compared to the same period last year. Asia produced 576.8 Mt, up 4.8% over H1 2017 while the EU produced 86.1Mt, up by 4.1%. North America’s crude steel production over H1 2017 was up 2.4% to 57.4 Mt, and the CIS produced 49.7 Mt, down 2.5% when compared with the same period the previous year.

In June, the Chinese produced 73.2 Mt of crude steel, an increase of 5.7% compared to June 2016, while the Japanese produced 8.4 Mt, down 4.3%, and the South Koreans produced 5.9 Mt, an increase of 7.7%.

In the EU, Germany produced 3.6 Mt of crude steel in June 2017, down 1.7% compared to June 2016. Italy produced 2.1Mt, up 1.8% and the French produced 1.3Mt, up 1.3%. Spain produced 1.3 Mt of crude steel, up 8.1%.

In Turkey crude steel production for June 2017 was 3Mt, up 7.1% on June 2016.

The USA produced 6.7 Mt of crude steel in June 2017, a decrease of 1.7% compared to the same period last year.

Brazil’s crude steel production for June 2017 was 2.6 Mt, up by 4% on June 2016.

The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 67 countries reporting to worldsteel in June 2017 was 73%. This is 1.4 percentage points higher than June 2016. Compared to May 2017, it is 1.3 percentage points higher.