EU-28 Crude Steel Output Slumped in April

The European crude steel production reported substantial decline during the month of April this year, following the global trend.

The domestic production totalled 10.729 million tonnes (Mt) during the month, as reported by the World Steel Association (worldsteel). This is down by 22.9% when matched with the output of 13.909 Mt achieved by the region in the same month a year before. The cumulative steel output from January to April this year too reported 12.5% decline over the previous year.

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The top three steel producing countries in the region were Germany, Italy and France. Germany topped the list with total production of nearly 3 Mt. The country accounted for almost 28% of the total regional production. The Italian production declined by more than 30% from 1.949 Mt in Apr ’19 to 1.350 Mt in April this year. France’s production totalled around 800,000 tonnes, falling sharply by approximately 30% from the prior year.

The above three countries together produced 5.150 Mt of crude steel, which is equivalent to almost 48% of the total European production.

The EU-28 crude steel production totalled 49.423 Mt in the first four months of the current year. Until April 2020, only Bulgaria and Finland reported increased production over the previous year. Croatia reported nil production during this period. The other countries to report notable decline in production were Luxembourg and Spain.