EU and US steel production falls as China’s rises

World crude steel production was 153 million tonnes (Mt) in July, a 2.5% decrease compared to July 2019, according to the latest figures from  the World Steel Association. Only China and Turkey of the major producers showed year-on-year growth last month.

China’s output of 93.4 Mt last month was a rise of 9.1% on the previous July while Japanese steel production fell 27.9% to 6 Mt and South Korea’s also declined, by 8.3% to 5.5 Mt.

Germany produced 2.4 Mt of crude steel, down 24.7% while the overall EU estimated total of 9.8 Mt was down 24.4%. The United States fabricated 5.2 Mt of crude steel, a sharp decline of 29.4%. Production in the CIS is said to be 8.1 Mt, down 5.8% while Ukraine produced 1.8 Mt of crude steel, down 1.9%.

More positively, Turkey’s crude steel production for July was up by 7.4% on July 2019 to 3.1 Mt.

The association says that, because of the ongoing difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, many of the July figures are estimates that may be revised with next month’s update.