Crude steel production in the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) rebounded in September, following 13 consecutive months of decline, boosted by a surge in Chinese output. Indian production growth however continued to be sluggish, Kallanish notes.

Chinese output continued to grow following its August rebound after many months of decline, surging by 17.6% on-year in September to 86.95 million tonnes. Indian growth was 1.8%, resulting in 9.87mt. Japanese and South Korean production fell 12% and 15% respectively to 7.14mt and 4.61mt.

There were no signs of any rebound in the EU27, where output fell 16.7% in September to 10.72mt. German and Italian output fell 15% and 19% respectively to 2.84mt and 1.87mt. Spanish and French output dropped 19% and 27% respectively to 1.02mt and 846,000t. Czech Republic did however see production grow 15% in September to 340,000t.

Turkish output fell 19% to 2.69mt.

The US reported a 7.5% drop in September crude steel production to 6.62mt and Brazil saw output down 12% to 2.74mt.

Russian output was estimated down 7% to 5.69mt and Ukrainian production dropped 80% to 340,000t.

Global crude steel output in January-September still fell 4.3% on-year to 1.405 billion tonnes.

Last week, worldsteel revised down its 2022 demand forecast, now expecting global demand to decline 2.3% on-year to 1.78 billion tonnes, compared to its 0.4% growth forecast in April.