Crude Steel Production Up 6.3 Percent in August
By
Metal Center News Staff on
Sep 27, 2017World crude steel production totaled 143.6 million tons in August, a 6.3 percent increase from last year, reports Brussels-based World Steel Association. Total production through the first eight months of 2017 is up 4.9 percent to 1.1 billion tons, compared with 1 billion tons through August 2016.
The crude steel capacity utilization rate of the 67 countries reporting to WSA was 72.2 percent in August, an increase of 3.3 percentage points from the same time last year. The rate was down 0.2 percentage points from the previous month.
In August, the U.S. increased production 6.3 percent year over year to 7.1 million tons. Year-to-date production was up 2.4 percent at 54.7 million tons.
Canada produced 1.1 million tons in August, an increase of 11.3 percent over last year. Through August, total production was up 2.2 percent in Canada at 8.9 million tons. Mexico’s production in August increased 5 percent to 1.7 million tons, while full-year production of 13.5 million tons was 9.3 percent higher than last year.
China’s crude steel production in August increased 8.7 percent to 74.6 million tons, Japan’s production decreased 2 percent to 8.7 million tons and India’s production increased 4.1 percent to 8.5 million tons.
In the European Union, Germany produced 3.6 million tons of crude steel during the month, an increase of 3.3 percent over August 2016. Italy produced 1.1 million tons, up 0.4 percent year over year, while France increased production 15.5 percent to 1.1 million tons. Elsewhere in Europe, Turkey’s crude steel production increased 13.3 percent in August to 3.2 million tons.
In Brazil, production increased 1.2 percent year over year to 3 million tons.