Crude steel production in the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association in July registered a decrease of 2.5% on the year to 152.7 million metric tonnes in July, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the association said Aug. 24.
North America and Europe registered the largest drop, down 28% to 7.2 millions of mt and 24.4% to 9.81 million mt, respectively.
In North America, the United States produced 5.2 million mt of crude steel in July, a decrease of 29.4% compared to July 2019, while the largest European steel producer, Germany produced 2.4 million mt of crude steel in July, down 24.7% from last year.
Asian counties registered an increase of 2.3% last month to 116 million mt on the year, with China posting a rise of 9.1% at 93.4 million mt of crude steel while Vietnam showing an uptick of 19.8% to 2.15 million mt.
All the other Asian countries registered a fall. Japan produced 6.0 million mt of crude steel in July 2020, down 27.9% from July 2019. South Korea’s steel production for July 2020 was 5.5 Mt, down 8.3% from July 2019.
Turkey’s crude steel production for July was 3.1 million mt, up 7.4% from July 2019. South American countries registered a decrease of 6.1% to 3.12 million mt. Production in the Commonwealth of Independent States is estimated to be 8.1 million mt in July, down 5.8% on the year. Ukraine produced 1.8 million mt of crude steel in July, down 1.9% from last year.
-- Annalisa Villa
Source : Steel Business Briefing
