Raw steel production declined 5.6% during November, falling to 127,364 million metric tons from the revised October total. At the same time, the latest month’s result is up 3.6% from the November 2012 production total.
Through the first 11 months of 2013, global steel output stands at 1.44 billion metric tons, up 3.2% versus the January-November 2012 cumulative result.
The World Steel Association, which reports data on steel production in 65 member countries, also reported raw steel capacity utilization ratio was 75.8%, down 1.7% from the October rate (77.5%), but 0.3% higher than the November 2012 rate (75.5%.)
The Brussels-based World Steel Assn. issues a monthly summary report of production and capacity utilization for “crude” (or raw) steel, the primary output of electric arc furnaces and basic oxygen furnaces, prior to metallurgical refining and casting into semi-finished products, such as slabs, blooms, or billets. The report totals the global carbon and carbon alloy steel output; stainless steels and other specialty alloy steels are not included.
The latest month’s result includes another decline in raw steel output from China, the world’s largest producer nation. Chinese steelmakers produced 60.9 million metric tons of steel in November, down 6.5% from the 65.1 million metric tons reported for October. It was the second consecutive month of declining output in that country, but represents a 4.2% increase over the November 2012 total.
Japan, EU, and U.S. Results
In Japan, steelmakers produced 9.3 million metric tons of raw steel in November, down 2.1% from October, but up 8.9% more than the November 2012 total.
South Korean output was 5.6 million metric tons in November, down 5.1% from October, and by 0.2% versus November 2012.
In the European Union, Germany produced 3.662 million metric tons of raw steel in November, down slightly from 3.760 million metric tons produced in October, but up 5.7% compared to November 2012.
Italian steelmakers produced 2.1 million metric tons of raw steel last month, down from October’s total by 5.2%, and down from November 2012 by 4.5%.
France’s raw steel production total rose 2.3% from October, to 1.3 million metric tons in November. The total also showed a 3.5% improvement over the November 2012 result.
In November 2013, Russian steelmakers produced 5.5 million metric tons of raw steel, declining 3.5% from October, and falling 0.7% compared to November 2012.
Ukraine’s raw steel production fell 4.3% to 2.5 million metric tons from October to November. The new total also indicated a decline of 7.9% from November 2012’s result.
In Brazil, steelmakers produced 2.7 million metric tons or raw steel during November 2013, a decline of 10.3% from October, and also a decrease of -2.8% compared to November 2012.
Finally, the World Steel Assn. reported U.S. steelmakers produced 7.1 million metric tons during November, falling 3.4% from the October output, and yet 5.3% more than the total for November 2012.
