By Paul Ploumis
SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The most recent production statistics published by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) suggests sharp decline in blast furnace iron (BFI) output during the month of June this year. The output declined by over 2%, falling from 101.682 million tonnes (Mt) in May to 99.603 Mt in June this year. Based on output figures from 39 countries that accounted for 99% of the world blast furnace iron production in 2015, the cumulative output during the initial six-month period of the year totaled 596.97 Mt.
Asia continued to be the leading producer of blast furnace iron during the month. The region’s production totaled 78.327 Mt, accounting for nearly 79% of the world production. However, the monthly production recorded slight decline when matched with 79.021 Mt production recorded during the month before that. Within Asian region, China was the top producer. The output by the country totaled 61.678 Mt, remaining more or less flat when compared with the previous month. The other key producers were Japan (6.250 Mt), India (5.200 Mt), South Korea (3.954 Mt) and Taiwan (1.245 Mt).
The North American BFI output totaled 2.650 Mt, falling marginally from 2.750 Mt during the prior month. The US output totaled 1.860 Mt. Canada’s production stood at 460,000 tonnes, followed by Mexico with 330,000 tonnes. The cumulative BFI output by the North American countries in the first half-yearly period of 2017 totaled 16.655 Mt.
The EU-28 region recorded an output of 7.784 Mt during June 2017, down significantly when matched with the output of 8.085 Mt output reported during the prior month. The leading producers of the region were Germany (2.250 Mt), France (868,000 tonnes), the Netherlands (551,000 tonnes), Austria (545,000 tonnes), the UK (543,000 tonnes), and Italy (447,000 tonnes). The cumulative yearly BFI production by the EU-28 countries totaled 47.088 Mt during the first six months of 2017.
South America recorded decline in blast furnace iron output in June 2017. The production totaled 2.519 Mt during the month. Brazil was the leading producer during the month with a total production of 2.265 Mt. The other major BFI producers were Argentina (182,000 tonnes), Chile (55,000 tonnes) and Colombia (15,000 tonnes).
The CIS region reported total output of 6.410 Mt in June. Russia, with a production of 4.550 Mt was the leading producer. The combined output by the region during Jan-June ’17 totaled 41.756 Mt. The BFI monthly output by the Oceania region totaled 373,000 tonnes, whereas the half-yearly output totaled 2.189 Mt.
