India’s crude steel production grew 2.5% to 9.02 million ton in January 2018 compared to 8.81 MT in the year-ago month, a report by World Steel Association said.
World leader China saw a marginal fall of 0.9% in crude steel production in January this year at 67 MT. It had produced 67.58 MT during the same month last year, PTI reported.
Japan, the second largest steel producer, saw almost flat output of 9.03 MT. India and Japan have produced almost same amount of crude steel, the figures show. India, which overtook the US to become the world’s third largest steel producer, is now looking to bag the second spot from Japan.
Global crude steel production of the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association was 139.43 MT in January 2018, a growth of 0.8% year-on-year.
France produced 1.4 MT, Spain (1.1 MT), Turkey (3.2 MT), the US (6.8 MT), Brazil (2.9 MT).
“The crude steel capacity utilization ratio of the 64 countries in January 2018 was 70%. This is 0.2 percentage points lower than January 2017. Compared to December 2017, it is 0.7 percentage points higher,” Worldsteel said.
The World Steel Association is one of the largest and most dynamic industry associations in the world. Its members represent approximately 85% of the world’s steel production.
Turkish production of crude steel rose 7.6% in January from a year earlier, beating the global average, state-run Anadolu news agency said, citing data from the World Steel Association.
Production increased to 3.17 MT, it said. That compared with 3.7 MT for Germany, the European Union’s biggest manufacturer, it said.
Turkey is seeking to increase exports to the EU and other markets to beat an economic growth target of 5% in 2018.
Ukraine reduced steel production by 0.1% compared to the same period in 2017, but increased by 1.9%, to 2.1 MT, from December 2017, ranking tenth in the rating of 64 countries.
Italy produced 2.018 MT (an increase of 5.3%), Iran (1.980 MT, an increase of 25.9%), and Taiwan (1.960 MT, an increase of 3.8%).
