Photo by Daniel Foster via Flickr
Figures released in October 2015 by the World Steel Association (Worldsteel), Brussels, indicate that world crude steel production for the 66 countries reporting to Worldsteel was 131 million metric tons in September 2015, a 3.7 percent decrease compared with September 2014.
The crude steel capacity utilization ratio for the 66 countries in September 2015 was 69.3 percent, which is 4 percentage points lower than September 2014. Compared with August 2015, it is 1.3 percentage points higher.
In the first nine months of 2015, Asia produced 828.9 million metric tons of crude steel, a decrease of 2 percent over the first three quarters of 2014.
The EU produced 127.5 million metric tons of crude steel during the first nine months of 2015, slightly down by 0.3 percent compared with the same period in 2014.
North America’s crude steel production in the first nine months of 2015 was 85.1 million metric tons, a decrease of 6.8 percent compared with the first three quarters of 2014.
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) produced 75.9 million metric tons of crude steel in the first nine months of 2015, a decrease of 5.8 percent over the same months of 2014.
Turkey’s crude steel production for September 2015 was 2.5 million metric tons, down by 14.1 percent on September 2014.
China’s crude steel production for September 2015 was 66.1 million metric tons, down by 3 percent compared with September 2014.
Japan produced 8.6 million metric tons of crude steel in September 2015, a decrease of 7.3 percent compared with September 2014.
India’s crude steel production was 7.3 million metric tons in September, down by 1.4 percent on the same month last year.
In September 2015, Russia produced 5.5 million metric tons of crude steel, down by 3.2 percent over September 2014.
Ukraine produced 2.1 million metric tons of crude steel, up by 14.1 percent compared with the same month in 2014.
The U.S. produced 6.7 million metric tons of crude steel in September 2015, down by 8.5 percent compared with September 2014.
Worldsteel members represent approximately 85 percent of the world’s steel production, including 170 steel producers with nine of the 10 largest steel companies, national and regional steel industry associations and steel research institutes.