Steel Production Still Rising

Steel production rose again in September, both in the US and abroad.

At 74.8 million net tons, domestic raw steel production was 3.8% higher than a year ago for the year-to-date through Oct. 28, according to American Iron and Steel Institute statistics. Capability utilization was at 74.6% compared with 72.2% a year ago.

World crude steel production increased 5.6% to 141.4 million tonnes (Mt) in September from the same period in 2016, the World Steel Association (worldsteel) reported. Production also rose by 5.6% through the first nine months of 2017, reaching 1,266.9 Mt globally.

Strong production in China contributed to the overall increases. China’s production increased 5.3% to 71.8 Mt in September and 6.3% to 638.7 Mt for the first nine months.

The US produced 8.6% more, 6.7 Mt in total, of crude steel in September than it did last year. US production was up 3.1%, to 61.5 Mt for the first nine months, according to worldsteel.

Regionally, for the first nine months, crude steel production increased by:

• 2.0% in Oceania;
• 3.5% in North America;
• 4.1% in the European Union;
• 5.9% in Asia;
• 8.0% in South America;
• 13.5% in Other Europe countries;
• 13.8% in Africa; and
• 14.2% in the Middle East.

Steel production was flat (0.0 percent) in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Capacity utilization among the 66 countries that report to worldsteel was 73.5% in September, which was 2.8 percentage points higher than a year ago and 0.6 percentage points more than in August.

Photo courtesy of worldsteel