Global steel capacity utilization rate drops to 69.3% in September

By Paul Ploumis (ScrapMonster Author)

November 04, 2015 06:09:20 AM

BRUSSELS (Scrap Monster): The latest statistics published by the World Steel Association indicates that worldwide steelmaking capacity utilization rates dropped sharply during the month of September this year. The capability utilization rate for the month stood at 69.3%, considerably lower by almost 4% when compared with the same month a year before. However, the rate has gone higher when compared with the August ’15 capacity utilization rate of 68%. This is the third consecutive month that the global capacity utilization rates have stayed below 70% levels.

Meantime, the global crude steel production during the initial nine-month period of the year dropped by almost 30 million tonnes to 1.212 billion tonnes in 2015, as compared with the output of 1.243 billion tonnes during the corresponding period in 2014.

All major regions apart from the Middle East and Oceania recorded drop in crude steel output during this period. The output surged higher by 5.5% in Oceania region, whereas it recorded marginal rise of 1% in the Middle East. The North American region reported sharpest year-on-year decline of 6.8% in steel output, followed by Other European region (down 6.4%) and CIS region (down 5.8%). The year-on-year declines by other regions are as follows: EU-28 (down 0.3%), South America (down 1.4%), Africa (down 0.1%) and Asia (down 2%).

Among the top ten steel producing nations, only India and Germany recorded year-on-year growth. The Indian steel production was up 3.1% over the previous year to 67.575 million tonnes. The German output too increased marginally by 0.1% to 32.572 million tonnes.

The steepest year-on-year decline in steel output during January to September this year was recorded by Ukraine. The ongoing conflicts in the region resulted in a drop of nearly 20.5% in output to 17.106 million tonnes. The other countries to report sharp decline in output were Turkey (23.78 million tonnes, down 7.8%) and the USA (60.629 million tonnes, down 8.6%).