Crude steel production at German mills in October has again been lower than the corresponding month in 2015, Kallanish learns from steel federation WV Stahl.

While the average difference in the first ten months was -1.9% year-on-year, reaching 35.52 million tonnes, the difference for October was more pronounced, at -3.7%, with production of 3.50mt. Pig iron production in October also saw a relatively steep fall by -5.4% and a similar difference had already been reported for September. However, WV Stahl notes that both of those months in 2015 were considered to be relatively strong.

Figures available to September show that crude steel output via the oxygen route fell by -2.0% while output via the EAF route slipped by -1.1%. Figures for rolled products in the first nine months are generally in line with the crude steel production figures. Of a total of 27.68mt of rolled products, two thirds were flat products and one third long products.

However, September has also shown a steeper fall of -8.3% in long products output whereas flat products achieved a y-o-y increase of 1.5% in the same period. It remains unclear if the decrease hints at the stalled output of certain long products in recent months, or is linked to a relatively high output a year earlier.