North American Steel Output Tumbled 28%

The crude steel output by North American region saw substantial dip by more than 28%. The regional production totalled 7.203 million net tonnes (Mt) in April 2020, compared with the output of 10.048 Mt in the same month a year before, said the latest statistics published by the World Steel Association (worldsteel).

The U.S. production has dropped by a third from 7.357 Mt to 4.968 Mt. The Mexican output too saw a decline by 12.1% to 1.450 Mt. The country had produced 1.649 Mt in April last year. The Canadian output, at 750,000 tonnes, was down by 24.4% from 992,000 tonnes in the same month a year before. These top three producers accounted for 99.5% of the total regional output.

The monthly production by other countries in the region is as follows: Guatemala (15,000 tonnes), Cuba (10,000 tonnes) and El Salvador (10,000 tonnes).

The cumulative steel production in the first four months of the current year was 36.798 Mt. This compares with the production of 40.792 Mt in Jan-Apr ’19. The U.S. output totalled 26.686 Mt this year, compared with 29.516 Mt last year. A 10% year-on-year decline was seen in Mexican output, which totalled 5.937 Mt until April this year. The Canadian output dropped from 4.456 Mt to 3.988 Mt.

Meantime, the South American steel output recorded nearly 43% and 16% declines in Apr ’20 and Jan-Apr ’20 respectively, worldsteel data said.