Global steel demand will reach 1,616.1 million tons in 2018, an increase of 1.8 percent over 2017, estimates the World Steel Association in its spring Short Range Outlook. In 2019, WSA forecasts global demand will grow by 0.7 percent to 1,626.7 million tons. “In the next couple of years, the global economic situation is expected […]
Global steel production grew by 3.8 percent in the three months through February. Excluding China, the pace of growth for world steel production was 3.2 percent, according to the latest Steel Market Update analysis of World Steel Association data. In 2017, total global steel production hit 1.687 billion metric tons, up by 5.2 percent from […]
Global steel production grew by 2.7 percent in the three months through January, though the pace of growth continued to be slowed by pollution control restrictions in China. Excluding China, the pace of growth for world steel production was 4.8 percent, according to the latest Steel Market Update analysis of World Steel Association data. On […]
Global steel production grew significantly in 2017, though the pace of growth slowed somewhat in December due to pollution control cutbacks in China, according to the latest Steel Market Update analysis of World Steel Association data. “Global growth has been accelerating since mid-2016, and all signs point to a further strengthening both this year and […]
Global steel production grew by 4.6 percent in the three months through November year over year with negative momentum, according to Steel Market Update’s analysis of World Steel Association data. The reduced growth rate was driven by pollution control cutbacks in China. Production in the month of November totaled 136,280,000 metric tons, down from 144,972,000 […]
Driven primarily by construction in the developing world, growth in global steel production continues to surge, according to Steel Market Update’s latest analysis of World Steel Association data. Steel production in the month of October was 145,254,000 metric tons, up from 141,576,000 in September. Capacity utilization decreased from 73.5 percent to 72.9 percent. Production was […]
The growth in global steel production is surging, driven by construction in the developing world, according to Steel Market Update’s analysis of World Steel Association data. WSA’s October 2017 short-range outlook, while painting a generally improved picture over the April update, is no big surprise. Global steel recovery has picked up further, and there are […]
China’s economy continues to show robust growth, and in August recorded its highest-ever share of total global steel production. Once each quarter, we publish the official statistics for Chinese GDP, industrial production, consumer price inflation and fixed asset investment. Currently available data is through the third quarter. Many analysts don’t believe these self-serving Party figures, […]
Growth in Chinese steel production continues to outpace the world, according to a Steel Market Update analysis of World Steel Association data. Production in the month of August was 143,580,000 metric tons, down slightly from 143,729,000 metric tons in July. Capacity utilization was unchanged at 71.7 percent. The three-month moving averages (3MMA) that we prefer […]
In June and July, China registered its highest share of global steel production ever, according to World Steel Association data with analysis by Steel Market Update. Global crude steel production in the month of July totaled 143,245,000 metric tons, up from 141,331,000 metric tons in June. Capacity utilization was 71.7 percent, down from 73.0 percent […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) steel and financial futures markets was written by Troy Rossi of Crunch Risk LLC. Here is how Troy saw trading over the past week: Steel This week, HR futures markets continued to see price consolidation along the curve as HR futures prices have found some support […]
Global steel production in the three months through June set another record and once again China was the driver, reports the World Steel Association, with the following analysis by SMU. World steel production in the month of June totaled 141,046,000 metric tons, down from 143,204,000 tons in May. Capacity utilization was 73.0 percent, up from […]
Global steel production in May was 143,325,000 metric tons, up from 142,060,000 tons in April. Capacity utilization was 71.8 percent in May. The three-month moving averages (3MMA) that we prefer to use were 142,957,000 and 72.4 percent, respectively. Capacity is 2.35 billion metric tons per year. Figure 1 shows monthly production and capacity utilization since […]
Production in the month of April was 142,080,000 metric tons, down from up from 143,469,000 tons in March. Capacity utilization at 73.6 percent was up from 71.9. The three month moving averages (3MMA) that we prefer to use were 137,479,000 and 72.0 percent respectively. Capacity is 2.35 billion tonnes per year. Figure 1 shows monthly […]
Later this week the U.S. Department of Commerce will hold public hearings for interested parties to voice their opinions regarding the Section 232 (national security) inquiry into the steel industry. Many believe the conclusion of this investigation was predetermined at the time of the original announcement. In the Fact Sheet produced by the U.S. Department […]
Production in the month of March was 144,953,000 metric tons, up from 127,227,000 tons in February. Capacity utilization at 74.0 percent was up from 70.3 in February. The three month moving averages (3MMA) that we prefer to use were 136,737,000 and 71.2 percent respectively. Production in February was severely influenced by the short month. Capacity […]
Production in the month of February was 126,579,000 metric tons, down from 137,837,000 tons in January. Capacity utilization fell from 69.2 to 65.5 The three month moving averages (3MMA) that we prefer to use were 132,861,000 and 67.8 percent respectively. This capacity utilization number is misleading because in February it was severely influenced by the […]
Once each quarter we publish the official statistics for Chinese GDP, industrial production, consumer price inflation and fixed asset investment. Currently available GDP data is through the fourth quarter, other data included here is through December or January. Many analysts don’t believe these Party self-serving figures but we include them in our reports because of […]
The Global steel industry is on a roll with the y/y growth in the three month moving average (3MMA) of production increasing from negative 5.5 percent in January last year to positive 6.0 percent in January this year. Production in the month of January was 136,514,000 metric tons with a capacity utilization of 69.2 percent. […]
Global steel production in 2016 was up by 0.9 percent after declining by 3.4 percent in 2015. On a rolling 12 month basis, December was the first month to have positive growth since May 2015. Production in the month of December was 134,059,000 metric tons with a capacity utilization of 68.6 percent. The three month […]
The following analysis was done by Steel Market Update for our Premium level customers. We are sharing the article with everyone (as well as our Apparent Excess article), well, because we would like all of our readers to upgrade to Premium… The WSA released their November update of global steel production on Tuesday. Production in […]
Once each quarter we publish the official statistics for Chinese GDP, industrial production, consumer price inflation and fixed asset investment. Currently available GDP data is through the third quarter, other data included here is through October. Many analysts don’t believe these Party self-serving figures but we include them in our reports because of the importance […]
The World Steel Association (WSA) released their provisional October update of global steel production on Friday with the proviso that several countries were late in reporting. When this happens they plug in the missing numbers and, based on our review of past assumptions, we believe their preliminary report is credible. We are, therefore, going ahead […]
Production in the month of August at 134,125,000 metric tons was up by 0.2 percent from July and the three month moving average (3MMA), that we prefer as a measure, was down by 0.13 from July. Capacity is 2.35 billion tonnes per year and the 3MMA of capacity utilization in August was 68.8 percent. Figure […]
Figure 1 shows published data for the growth of GDP, industrial production and consumer prices through the second quarter of 2016. The GDP and industrial production portions of this graph are three month moving averages. The growth of GDP was 6.7 percent in the second quarter, which was unchanged from the first quarter, down from […]
Production in the month of June at 135,720,000 metric tons was down by 2.7 percent from May and the three month moving average (3MMA) that we prefer as a measure was down by 0.2 percent year over year. Month over month the 3MMA was down by 0.6 percent. Capacity is 2.3 billion tonnes per year […]
Production in the month of May, at 139,154,000 metric tons, was up by 3.2 percent from April and the three month moving average (3MMA) that we prefer as a measure was up by 4.5 percent. Capacity is 2.3 billion tonnes per year and the 3MMA of capacity utilization in May was 70.5 percent. This report […]
The following article was written by Lisa Reisman, Managing Director and CEO Of Azul Partners, Inc., on May 24, 2016 and is reprinted with permission of MetalMiner: Jennifer Diggins is the director of Government Affairs at Charlotte, N.C.-based Nucor Corp., the largest steelmaker in the U.S. and North America’s largest recycler of any material (Nucor […]
Production in the month of April at 134,874,000 metric tons was down by 2.0 percent from March but the three month moving average (3MMA) that we prefer as a measure was up by 2.0 percent. Capacity is 2.3 billion tonnes per year and capacity utilization in April was 70.5 percent. There has been a significant […]
Source World Steel Association with analysis by SMU. Global steel production in the 12 months of 2015 totaled 1.595 billion tonnes with a capacity of 2.33 billion tonnes. The WSA has made no downward revision to capacity as production fell in the course of 2015 through February this year making capacity utilization look increasingly dismal. […]