WSA: November spike in crude steel output

Global – Global crude steel production in November was 5% or more than 6 million tonnes higher than in the same month last year at 132.402 million tonnes, according to the World Steel Association (WSA). Capacity utilisation among the 66 reporting countries was 69.6% as against 67.1% in November 2015 and 69.7% in October 2016.

China matched the world growth in boosting year-on-year crude steel output by 5% in November to 66.29 million tonnes while India and Turkey reported double-digit gains of, respectively, 10.7% to 8.01 million tonnes and 10.4% to 2.912 million tonnes. Rolling together the figures for the first 11 months of 2016, Chinese crude steel production was running 1.1% or more than 8 million tonnes ahead of last year at 738.94 million tonnes while India and Turkey upped their outputs by, in turn, 7.1% and 5.1%.

The EU-28 (+2.6%), Russia (+5%), the USA (+6.8%) and Africa (+7.2%) all produced more crude steel in November this year than in the penultimate month of 2015. But the opposite applied when comparing the first 11 months of 2016 with the same period last year, with declines of: 3.5% to 149.142 million tonnes in the EU-28; 0.8% to 64.623 million tonnes in Russia; 1.2% to 72.041 million tonnes in the USA; and 5.9% to 11.134 million tonnes in Africa.

The Middle East’s crude steel production soared by an eye-catching 43.6% year on year to 2.555 million tonnes in November and by 6.7% across the first 11 months of 2016 to 26.58 million tonnes.