The World Steel Association (worldsteel) reported that global crude steel output from its 64 reporting countries was 146.7 million tonnes in January 2019, up 1% year-on-year.

China produced 75mt in the month, a hike of 4.3% on January 2018 and still over half of the world’s crude steel output. China’s figure is an estimate from the China Iron and Steel Association, worldsteel says.

Total January crude steel production In the EU28 was down y-o-y at 18.8mt (-3.5%). Estimated output in Germany fell back by -7.2% y-on-y to 3.4mt. Monthly production also slipped y-on-y in Italy by -3.6% to 2mt. French crude steel output also slid, falling by -9.7% y-o-y to 1.2mt. Spanish output grew however, by 5.9% to 1.2mt.

Crude steel production in India in January slipped y-o-y by -1.9% to 9.2mt whilst that of Japan was 8.1mt, down by -9.8% from January 2018. South Korean production also fell by -1.5% y-o-y during the month to 6.2mt.

US crude steel output was 7.6mt in January 2019, an on-year increase of 11%, whilst in Brazil crude steel production was 2.9t, up by 2.3% on the prior-year period.

Russian estimated production was 5.8mt in the month, down by -4.5% on-year. Ukraine’s output also fell meanwhile to 1.8mt, down by -4.9%, same basis.