World Crude Steel Output Surged 4.8% in January

The world crude steel production by the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) totalled 162.9 million tonnes (Mt) in the opening month of 2021. This is higher by 4.8% when compared with the production during the same month a year before.

The largest regional producer of steel during the month was Asia and Oceania region, which recorded an output of approximately 119 Mt. The region accounted for over 73% of the total global production. The output jumped higher by 6.3% over the previous year. The second largest producer was the EU-27, whose output recorded marginal year-on-year decline by 0.4% to 12.2 Mt. In third place was North America with a production of 9.6 Mt. The monthly production posted sharp decline by 7% over January 2020.

The CIS region recorded 4.5% surge in output to 9.2 Mt. The South American output, at 3.8 Mt, was up by 11.4%, when matched with the previous year. The Middle East output too was up by 1.5% to 3.6 Mt. On the other hand, the African countries witnessed 7.9% decline in output to 1.2 Mt.

It must be noted that the 64 countries included in the list, had accounted for 99% of world’s total crude steel production in 2019.