India, Japan major contributors to 0.8% rise in world steel output

Global crude steel production stood at 139.4 million tonne in January, marginally up by 0.8 per cent from the corresponding period last year, as India and Japan made sizeable contribution, the World Steel Association said in its release. In the period under reivew, both India and Japan produced 9 million tonnes of crude steel each, up 2.5 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively from the same period last year. China, the world's largest steel consumer and producer, on the other hand witnessed a drop in production in January, as its crude steel output decreased 0.9 per cent on year-on-year basis to 67 million tonnes. In 2017, China was the highest contributor to the total production as its share rose to 49.2 per cent at 831.7 million tonnes from 49 per cent in 2016.

The total world steel production in 2017 was 1,162.5 million tonnes. In the European Union region, Italy’s crude steel production for January was 2 million tonnes, up 5.3 per cent from last year, while France produced 1.4 million tonnes of crude steel, an increase of 3 per cent compared to January 2017. Spain witnessed a drop as it produced 1.1 million tonnes in January 2018, a decrease of 1 per cent from January 2017. The US produced 6.8 million tonnes of crude steel in January, a 2.2 per cent decrease from last year. Though the world crude steel production was higher in January compared to last year, the capacity utilisation of the 64 reporting countries of World Steel Association was at 70 per cent, down 0.2 percentage points compared to same period last year even as it remained 0.7 percentage points higher as against the preceding month.