Global crude steel production rose 2.2% on-year in August to 152.6 million tonnes, spurred by growth in China and India, while US output also inched up, Kallanish notes from worldsteel data. Production was however down 4% versus July.

Chinese output rose 3.2% on-year to 86.4mt, while Indian production surged 17.4% to 11.9mt. The latter was also up on-month. Japanese and South Korean output however fell 3% and 6% respectively on-year to 7.15mt and 5.58mt.

EU27 output dropped 4% on-year in August to 9.01mt, with Germany seeing a 1% decline to 2.84mt. However, Italy saw production jump 9% to 820,000t during its traditional summer holiday month, indicating summer stoppages were not as comprehensive as in 2022. Spain saw output surge 28% to 867,000t, but French production fell 8% to 803,000t.

Turkish production dropped 3% to 2.76mt.

US production grew 1.1% to 6.98mt, but Brazilian output fell 6% to 2.7mt.

Russian output is estimated to have risen 9% to 6.4mt.

Crude steel output in the 63 countries monitored by worldsteel thus inched up 0.2% on-year in January-August to 1.26 billion tonnes.