Steel production figures for the first half of 2018 collected by the Brussels-based World Steel Association (WorldSteel) show South American mills produced 2.4 percent more steel year-to-date compared to the first half of 2017.
The continent’s largest steel producing nation, Brazil, was below that average with just a 0.9 percent rise in output, from 16.71 million metric tons produced in the first half of 2017 to 16.86 million metric tons in this year’s first six months.
Output has surged in Argentina in 2018, with the 2.55 million metric tons produced there in the first half of 2018 marking a 20.1 percent jump from the 2.11 million metric tons made in the first half of 2017. The only other South American nation that has averaged more than 100,000 metric tons of monthly output is Peru. It barely reached that level with its 608,000 metric tons of output for the half, which is up by 1.4 percent compared to last year.
The South American 2.4 percent growth rate is identical to North America’s. On that continent, Mexico has led the way with a 3.3 percent output increase year-on-year, while United States output is up by 2.9 percent and Canada’s output has fallen by 2.3 percent.
Globally, steel output totaled 881.5 million metric tons in the first six months of 2018, up by 4.6 percent compared to the same period in 2017. Asia produced 613.9 million metric tons of that steel, or 69.6 percent of it. Steelmakers there showed an increase of 5.2 percent in output versus the first half of 2017, according to WorldSteel.