World crude steel production drops in March

Author: Paul Ploumis22 Apr 2015 Last updated at 01:41:45 GMT

BRUSSELS (Scrap Monster): According to the most recent statistics published by the World Steel Association, the crude steel production by 65 member countries was 138.045 million tonnes (Mt) in March this year, down 2.7% upon comparison with production of 141.811 Mt during same month the previous year.

The total crude steel production by EU-28 countries during March this year was 15.314 Million tonnes (Mt), slightly down by 0.9% than the March 2014 production of 15.453 Mt. Other European countries produced 2.989 Million tonnes of crude steel, down 2.7% when compared to 3.072 Million tonnes production achieved during March 2014. The CIS countries’ crude steel production dropped by 9.6% from 9.232 Mt to 8.341 Mt. The total crude steel production by North America declined sharply by 9.8% from 10.353 Mt in March 2014 to 9.341 Mt in March this year.

The total crude steel production by South American region during March this year declined by 6.8% to 3.690 Mt. African countries produced 1.230 Million tonnes of crude steel, 7.7% down when compared to 1.333 Million tonnes production achieved during March 2014. The total crude steel production by the Middle East countries during March this year was 2.369 Million tonnes(Mt), marginally higher by 1.0% when compared with the March 2014 output of 2.345 Mt. The Asian countries’ crude steel production dropped by 1.3% from 95.574 Mt to 94.335 Mt. The total crude steel production by Oceania region dropped sharply by 11.0% from 0.489 Mt in March 2014 to 0.435 Mt in March this year.

The following table provides cumulative crude steel output for the first three months in 2015 in comparison with those during same period in 2014.

Note: The above outputs are in thousands of tonnes.