Global Steel Production Tumbles in April
By
Metal Center News Staff on
May 25, 2020
World crude steel production totaled 137.1 million tons in April, a 13 percent decline compared with the same month in 2019, the World Steel Association reports. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many of the month’s figures are estimates that may be revised later.
The U.S. produced 5 million tons in April, a decline of 32.5 percent. For the year to date, U.S. production was down 9.6 percent to 26.7 million tons.
Canadian production of 750,000 tons was down 24.4 percent in April, while the year-to-date total of 4 million tons was off 10.5 percent. Mexican production declined 12.1 percent in April to 1.5 million tons, and was down 10.3 percent to 6 million tons for the year to date.
China defied the global trend, increasing production 0.2 percent to 85 million tons in April. Indian production was down 65.2 percent to 3.1 million tons, while Japanese production declined 23.5 percent to 6.6 million tons.
In Europe, German production was down 10.7 percent to 3 million tons, Italian production declined 30.7 percent to 1.4 million tons and production in France totaled 800,000 tons, a 37.9 percent decline.
Russian production declined 19.4 percent in April to 4.7 million tons, while production in Turkey of 2.2 million tons was 26.3 percent lower than April 2019.