Steel’s Slow Climb Continues

Crude steel production for the 66 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (Worldsteel), Brussels, was 103.9 million metric tons in July, marking the highest monthly production figure this year.

The July total jumped by more than 4 million metric tons compared to June production, which checked in at slightly less than 100 million metric tons. Compared to July 2008, the world’s steel production was 11 percent lower in July 2009. That comparison is relatively encouraging compared to the year-to-date drop in global production of 20 percent.

China’s crude steel production for July 2009 was 50.7 million metric tons, 12.6 percent higher than July 2008. It is the first time ever that China has produced more than 50 million metric tons of crude steel in a month, and the total accounted for nearly 50 percent of global steel production in July. Since April 2009, both the world and China’s crude steel production have shown a steady month on month increase.

In July, almost all the major steel-producing nations – including China, Japan, Germany, the United States, Brazil, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine – demonstrated their highest monthly figures so far in 2009.

Total crude steel production in the 66 reporting countries for the first seven months of 2009 has been 653 million metric tons, a 20 percent decrease over the same period in 2008.

Year-to-date, the European Union (EU) 27 nations have produced 42 percent less steel and the United States has produced 51 percent less steel while China has produced 3 percent more steel and India has produced 1.7 percent more steel.