The World Steel Association (worldsteel) says that global crude steel output from its 64 reporting countries was 156.6 million tonnes in October 2018, up 5.8% year-on-year.

Overall during the first ten months of the year crude steel production increased some 4.7% y-o-y; by the end of the year this level could well increase further as November and December output is expected to continue showing strong signs if recovery.

China produced 82.6mt in October, a hike of 9.1% on October 2017 and still clearly well over half of the world’s crude steel output.

Total October crude steel production In the EU28 was flat y-o-y at 14.8mt (-0.4%). Estimated output in Germany rose by 1.4% y-on-y to 3.6mt. Monthly production also grew slightly y-on-y in Italy by 1.1% to 2.3mt. French crude steel output fell back on-year however in October by -3.5% to 1.3mt. Spanish output also fell, but more heavily by -7.4% to 1.3mt, same comparison.

Crude steel production in India in October rose y-o-y by just 0.4% to 8.5mt whilst that of Japan was 8.6mt, down by -4.5%% from October 2017. South Korean production rose by 3.5% y-o-y during the month to 6.2mt.

US crude steel output was 7.6mt in October 2018, an on-year increase of 10.5%, whilst in Brazil crude steel production was an estimated 3.1mt, up by 3.0% on the prior-year period.

Russian estimated production was 6.0mt in the month, up by 0.4% on-year. Ukraine’s output also fell meanwhile to 1.8mt, down by -6.7%, same basis.