Global Crude Steel Production in July Rises 5.8% Year Over Year
Global crude steel production was on the rise last month, jumping 5.8% compared with July 2017, according to a World Steel Association report this week. That rate is down from the 8.5% posted in July 2017 and the 6.4% in June 2018.
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According to the report, the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association produced 154.6 million tons (MT) in July.
Global capacity utilization, however, fell for the first time since December, dropping from 78.9% in June to 77.5% in July. However, July’s global capacity utilization is up from July 2017’s 73.8%.
China’s crude steel production in July jumped 7.2% compared with July 2017, having produced 81.2 MT last month. China posted a 12.9% production growth rate in July 2017 and 7.5% in June 2018.
Japan produced 8.4 MT, marking a 2.0% year-over-year drop. South Korea’s crude steel production hit 6.2 MT for an increase of 0.1%.
Elsewhere, U.S. production of 7.3 MT marked a 4.5% increase.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s production reached 3.3 MT, down 2.3%. As noted in this space before, rising political tensions between the U.S. and Turkey led to the U.S. doubling its Section 232 tariffs vis-a-vis Turkey, raising the steel tariff to 50%.
At 3.0 MT, Brazilian production was up 6.7%.
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Ukrainian production rose 11.4% to 1.8 MT.
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