Steelmakers Scale Back in July

World crude steel production for the 66 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (Worldsteel), Brussels, was slightly less than 115 million metric tons in July, down from the nearly 119 million metric tons produced in June.

The July 2010 figure is nonetheless 9.6 percent higher than what the world’s steelmakers produced in July 2009. Year-to-date, global steel production stands at 821 million metric tons, some 25 percent greater than the 657 million metric tons produced in the first seven months of 2009.
 
China’s crude steel production for July 2010 was 51.7 million metric tons, an increase of 2.2 percent, compared to July 2009. As in many other nations, however, steelmakers in China produced less steel in July 2010 than they did the month before (down from 53.8 million metric tons in June).
 
In the European Union, Germany’s crude steel production for July 2010 was 3.5 million metric tons, a 29.7 percent increase compared to July 2009. As in China, however, German steel production slowed down in July 2010 compared to the previous month, when 3.8 million metric tons of crude steel was made.
 
The United States produced 6.7 million metric tons of crude steel in July 2010, an increase of 32.9 percent compared to July of 2009. American steel production also slowed down compared to June 2010, when steelmakers churned out 7.2 million metric tons.

Among the only nations that produced more steel in July compared to June were: India (5.75 million metric tons vs. 5.3 million in June); Russia (5.6 million metric tons vs. 5.4 million in June); and Brazil (2.95 million metric tons vs. 2.8 million in June).
 
Worldsteel, www.worldsteel.org, includes about 180 steel producers as members (including 19 of the world’s 20 largest steel companies, it says), as well as national and regional steel industry associations Worldsteel members produce around 85 percent of the steel produced globally.