World steel production increased in January

In January of this year, steel production in the world reached 136.5 million tons, an increase compared to January last year by 7 percent. China, the European Union, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan have increased steel output.

Russia produced 6.183 million tons, increasing steel output by 11.6 percent. Ukraine increased production by 8.5 percent to 2.103 million tons. 200 thousand tons were produced in Belarus, which is an increase of up to 31.6 percent. Kazakhstan increased steel production by 14.6% to 399 thousand tons, which is associated with an increase in the use of hardware products and those wishing to buy bolts and other fasteners for construction and industrial activities.

According to Worldsteel, EU producers produced 13.824 million tonnes of crude steel, up 2.4 percent year on year. Germany production of 3649 million tons, reaching an increase of 1.2 percent. Italy increased production by 5 thousand tons, or 0.3 percent, to 1,825 million tons.

Turkey, with the production of 2.93 million tons of crude steel, recorded an increase of 12.8 percent. In the United States, production increased 6.5 percent to 6.874 million tonnes. Brazil, with production of 2.9 million tons of steel, recorded an increase of 14.4 percent.

The Asia region saw an increase in crude steel production by 7.1 percent. Production in the region totaled 93.413 million tons, of which 67.2 million tons came from China (an increase of 7.4 percent). Japan produced 9 million tons, an increase of 2.7 percent. India smelted 8.4 million tons of steel, in turn providing 12 percent growth. South Korea produced 5.86 million tons of crude steel, the output increased by 3.2 percent.

In January 2017, the global capacity utilization rate increased year-on-year by 3.4 percentage points to 68.5 percent. Compared to December 2016, the growth in the use of production capacity was 0.9 percent.