Steel production in the EU-28 fell by 5%

European crude steel production reported a decline in February 2019. Domestic production for the month was 12.984 million tonnes, according to the World Steel Association (worldsteel). This is slightly lower by 5.0% when compared with the 13.664 million tonnes capacity achieved by the region in the same month a year earlier. Aggregate steel output in January-February 2019 also showed a nominal decline of 3.9% over the previous year.

The top five steel producing countries in the region include Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Poland. Aggregate production in the above five countries amounted to 8.349 million tonnes, which is more than 64% of the total regional production. Germany topped the list with 3.12 million tonnes of steel in a month. German production recorded a 9.4% decline over the previous year. Italy also reported a slight drop in steel production during the month. Italian production was 2.046 million tonnes, a slight decrease of 2.7% year on year. French production fell 0.3%, while Spanish production rose 2.5%. An annual decline of 6.8% was noted in the Polish edition in February 2019.

Crude steel production in the EU-28 in January-February 2019 amounted to 26.878 million tonnes. In a two-month period, Croatia reported the largest increase in production. The volume of production in the country has grown by more than 228%. In contrast, Finland's production fell significantly compared to the previous year by almost 19%.