World Crude Steel Production Increases in Jan, Y-o-Y

If January shows any trend, world’s steel production in 2017 could touch a new height with over 1,700 MnT output. Though it will be premature to reach at such a conclusion, going by the numbers of just one month, the beginning has been a rocking one.

Perhaps, it was after a long time that all the top major steel producing countries reported positive output growth during the month leading to an overall 7% increase in global steel production at 136.5 MnT in January.

Being the largest producer and consumer of steel, China has been the biggest mover of anything that is related to the metal. It produced 67 MnT steel in January, up by 7.4% over the same month last year. World Steel Association (WSA) said the “apparently high percentage figure explained by the fact that January 2016 saw a marked dip in Chinese steel production”. Japan was the second largest contributor to the production kitty at 9 MnT, up 2.7 % over January, 2016.

India’s production growth has been constantly improving and there was no exception in January as well. The third largest producer and consumer of steel, India recorded the highest growth rate in production at 12% at 8.4 MnT. The US produced 6.8 MnT, Russia 6.1 MnT and Korea produced 5.9 MT, clocking 6.5% and 11.6% growth over the same month respectively.

Other countries like Germany, Turkey and Brazil also posted positive production growth during the month. Analysts said higher prices on the top of an expected demand growth are driving the production growth across the region.

The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio in January 2017 was 68.5%. This is 3.4 percentage points higher than in January 2016.

Last October, WSA had forecasted that the global steel demand will increase by 0.2% to 1,501 MnT in 2016, following a contraction of -3% in 2015. However, it said the demand for steel in 2017 will grow by 0.5% and reach 1,510 MnT.

Global steel production had been on the rise consistently to reach its highest in 2014 at 1,670 MnT. In 2015, production fell to 1,620 MnT and in 2016, it increase a little to stand at 1,629 MnT. China was the highest contributor to the production at 808 MnT followed by Japan at 105 MnT. India’s steel output was 96 MnT. The US produced 79 MnT steel followed by Russia at 71 MnT.

World steel production (MT) :

(Source: World Steel Association)