Steel Products

World Steel Production Down in February

Written by Sandy Williams

March 21, 2013

Written by: Sandy Williams

World steel production in February dropped to 123.2 million metric tons from 129.7 million metric tons in January. China, which accounted for 46.4 percent of total world February production, was at 61.8 million metric tons, down from 63.6 million metric tons the previous month. Compared to the same month in 2012 global production was up 1.2 percent but when China is excluded, production actually fell 6.2 percent.

China production rose year-over-year by 9.8 percent while the biggest year-over-year drops were seen in Russia and the U.S., down 11.9 percent and 11.8 percent, respectively. Production in the EU dropped 5.6 percent year-over-year.

Japan production slid to 8.31 million metric tons in February from 8.86 million metric tons in January. Brazil also dropped for the month to 2.62 million metric tons from 2.82 million metric tons.

Global capacity is 1.97 billion metric tons vs. steel production of 1.23 billion metric tons in February—a capacity utilization of 62 percent. The last time supply and demand were close was in 2008 when capacity utilization was over 90 percent and production topped 1.4 billion metric tons.

Sandy Williams

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