On November 20, the World Steel Association (worldsteel) announced world crude steel production results for October and for the first ten months of the year.
According to the worldsteel report, world crude steel production for the 66 countries surveyed was 112.18 million mt in October, increasing by 13.1 percent year on year and up 3.09 percent compared to the previous month. Following a revision of the September production figures, October is the second month in a row in which positive year-on-year growth has been recorded (September and October also being the only months registering increases year on year since September 2008). In addition, October is the sixth month in a row in which world steel production has posted a month-on-month increase. Meanwhile, world crude steel production in the January-October period totaled 982.14 million mt, decreasing by 13.5 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.
World crude steel capacity utilization has been steadily improving since its lowest point in December 2008. In October this year, the overall world capacity utilization ratio was 76.0 percent, 17.8 percentage points higher than in December last year.
In October, China's crude steel production amounted to 51.75 million mt, rising by 42.4 percent compared to October last year. Japan produced 8.8 million mt of crude steel in the month in question, down by 12.9 percent compared to October last year, while South Korea showed a slight drop of 0.7 percent year on year, producing 4.58 million mt of crude steel. India's crude steel output in the month in question totaled 4.86 million mt, up 1.1 percent year on year.
In the EU, Germany's October crude steel output was 3.45 million mt, with a decrease of 11 percent, while Italy produced 2.17 million mt - down 15.8 percent, Spain produced 1.14 million mt - down 15.9 percent, and French crude steel output showed a decrease of 16.3 percent, with 1.37 million mt, all compared to October 2008.
The US produced 5.92 million mt of crude steel in October, with a decrease of 12.4 percent, while Brazil produced 2.8 million mt of crude steel, down 3.5 percent, both compared to the same month last year.
Meanwhile, Russia's crude steel output in October this year was 5.61 million mt, an increase of 24.2 percent from October 2008, while Ukraine produced 2.66 million mt of crude steel, 42.9 percent higher year on year.
Turkey produced 2.28 million mt of crude steel in October, up 25.5 percent from October last year.
In the month in question Iran produced 890,000 mt of crude steel, 11.4 percent more than in October 2008.
With respect to crude steel production by region, in the first ten months of 2009, the EU-27 produced 111.47 million mt of crude steel, down 36.7 percent, CIS countries produced 79.85 million mt of crude steel, down 22.2 percent, North America produced 65.41 million mt of crude steel, decreasing by 41.9 percent, while South America produced a total of 30.38 million mt, down 27.2 percent, all compared to the same period of the previous year. Meanwhile, the crude steel output of Africa reached 12.17 million mt in the same period, down 18.6 percent year on year. In January-October this year, the crude steel production of the Middle East totaled 13.9 million mt, up 2.5 percent, while Asia produced 640.7 million mt, up 0.2 percent, both compared to the corresponding period of 2008.
