World crude steel production up 4.2% y-o-y

According to the World Steel Association (worldsteel), world crude steel production in August 2010 was almost at the same level as August 2008, before the impact of the global economic crisis.

However, while China, Turkey and Iran showed increased crude steel production in August 2010 compared to the same month in 2008, the US, Germany, Italy, Brazil and Japan are not yet back to pre-crisis production levels.

China’s crude steel production for August 2010 was 51.6Mt, a decrease of 1.1% compared to August 2009.

Japan produced 8.9Mt of crude steel in August 2010, up 7.1% compared to the same month last year. South Korea’s crude steel production for August 2010 was 4.5Mt, 6.4% up compared to the same month last year.

Germany’s crude steel production for August 2010 was 3.5Mt, an increase of 17.1% on August 2009.

Turkey produced 2.5Mt of crude steel in August 2010, 11.3% higher than August 2009.

The US produced 6.9Mt of crude steel in August 2010, an increase of 23.7% compared to August 2009.

Brazil produced 2.9Mt of crude steel in August 2010, a 7.8% increase over the same month last year.

The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 66 countries in August 2010 continued to decline to a year low of 73.1% from 74.4% in July 2010. Compared to August 2009, the utilization ratio in August 2010 decreased by 1.1 percentage point.

World crude steel production in July this year was 115Mt.