Global steel production fell only slightly from June to July, dropping just -0.2% to 158.5 million metric tons in the latest monthly summary from the World Steel Assn. The monthly output results have been generally consistent since March, indicating steelmakers worldwide are limiting their output in order to achieve some discipline over excess supply and weak prices.
Even so, the current rate of production has stabilized higher than the 2022 rate, so that the year-over-year results for July 2023 are 6.6% higher than the 2022 figure, although the year-to-date total for January-July is even (-0.1%) with last year’s total.
World Steel’s report summarizes the production results for 63 countries, representing 97.0% of global steel capacity. The report covers carbon steel produced in basic-oxygen or electric arc furnaces and cast into semi-finished forms like billets for bar and rod products; slabs for flat products; or blooms, for beam and pipe products. (Specialty and stainless steel volumes are not included.)
