World crude steel production up 4.1% in February 2017

These latest figures represent a 4.1% increase on February 2016 figures and worldsteel stresses that the 2016 figure was based on a 29-day month.

In China, crude steel production for February 2017 was up 4.6% on last year’s figure and totaled 61.2Mt, while in Japan 8.3Mt of crude steel was produced, down 0.1% on the previous year. India’s February 2017 figure was 8.1Mt, up 8.9%, and in South Korea crude steel production was up 8.3% to 5.5Mt.

In the European Union, Germany was the star player with an increase in crude steel production for February 2017 up 2.6% at 3.5Mt. In Italy the figure was up 1.2% to 2Mt. But it’s not all good news. In France crude production was down 5.8% on last February at 1.2Mt and in Spain it was down 4.6% at 1.1Mt.

In Turkey crude steel production for February 2017 was 2.7 Mt, up 15.6% on February 2016.

In the USA 6.4 Mt of crude steel was produced in February 2017, 1% compared to February 2016.

In Latin America, Brazil’s crude steel production for the period was 2.6 Mt, up 5.7% on the February 2016 figure.

The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 67 countries reporting to worldsteel in February 2017 was 70.3%. This is four percentage points higher than in February 2016. Compared to January 2017, it is 1.1 percentage points higher.