Steel production decreased in Europe

Steel production across the EU-28 fell 1.8 percent during February 2015 compared to February last year, according to the latest data released by the World Steel Association.

A fairly high yield in February was achieved at the expense of Germany. German steel production was 3.512 million tonnes during the month, down 1.6 percent from 3.569 million tonnes in February 2014.

The minimum production was in Croatia. In addition, Croatia's crude steel output fell sharply. The fall was more than 50 percent to 10,000 tons in February this year, up from 20,000 tons in February 2014. On an annualized basis, Croatia recorded the largest decline in production.

Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden and other countries in the EU-28 region recorded an increase in crude steel production year on year. At the same time, Greece showed the highest growth in crude steel production in February 2015. The growth compared to the previous year was 82.9 percent.

The cumulative production of EU-28 steel in the first two months in 2015 compared to the same period in 2014 amounted to: Austria 1.333 million tonnes (up 2.2 percent), Belgium 1.235 million tonnes (down 4.4 percent), Bulgaria 95 thousand tons (drop 1.2), Czech Republic 910 thousand (increase 2.2 percent), Finland 666 thousand tons (increase 3.7 percent), France 2.589 million tons (drop 4.2 percent), Germany 7.191 million. tonnes (0.6 percent drop), Greece 155 thousand (18.3 percent increase), Italy 3.848 million tonnes (10.5 percent drop), Netherlands 1.149 million tonnes (0.4 percent increase), Poland 1.148 million tonnes (a drop of 18.3 percent), Spain 2.395 million tons (an increase of 3.4 percent), the UK 2.033 million tons (a drop of 3.0 percent).