China, India and Turkey set 2016 steelmaking pace

Global – October brought some of the strongest growth to date this year in global crude steel production, with the total of 136.523 million tonnes representing an increase of more than 4 million tonnes or 3.3% over the corresponding figure in 2015.

Capacity utilisation among the countries reporting to the World Steel Association (WSA) was 69.6% compared to 68.2% in October last year but 70.2% this September.

The overall production increase in October owed much to a 12.3% year-on-year hike in India’s output to 8.267 million tonnes and to a 4% surge in China to 68.51 million tonnes.

Output was also significantly higher in Turkey (+8.6% to 2.975 million tonnes). Even the EU-28 managed an increase – albeit just 0.3% year on year to 14.051 million tonnes, while a small gain was also registered by Japan (+0.6% to 9.062 million tonnes).

Of the major Asian producers, only South Korea posted a lower total than in October last year (-2.1% to 5.961 million tonnes). A similar decline in crude steel production was recorded by the USA (-2.5% to 6.382 million tonnes) whereas substantially steeper falls were recorded by Ukraine (-6.1% to 1.931 million tonnes) and South America (-10.6% to 3.514 million tonnes).

According to the WSA stats, crude steel production of 1.333 billion tonnes in the opening 10 months of 2016 was just 0.1% shy of the 1.335 billion tonnes of January-October 2015.

Four of the world’s leading producer countries have increased their output so far in 2016, led by China on 672.96 million tonnes (+0.7% year on year) and followed by India on 79.521 million tonnes (+6.8%), Turkey on 27.413 million tonnes (+4.6%) and Ukraine on 20.188 million tonnes (+5.4%).