South American steel production up 2.1%

The monthly production statistics published by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) point to a slight jump in South American steel production in May 2019. However, regional production remained lower during January-May 2019 compared to the corresponding five-month period in 2018.

Steel production in South America for the month was 3.537 million tonnes. This is slightly higher by 2.1% compared to the production of 3.464 million tons in May last year. Chile saw the largest jump in production, with production growing by almost 31% year-over-year from 80,000 tonnes to 105,000 tonnes. On the other hand, Colombian production saw the largest decline at 34.8%. Steel production in the country fell from 100,000 tons in May 18 to 65,000 tons in May this year.

The largest producer in the region, Brazil, slightly increased production by 2.9% from 2.674 million tons to 2.751 million tons. The second largest regional producer, Argentina reported a slight decrease in production from 438,000 tons to 435,000 tons. In third place was Peru with a total production of 110,000 tons. Production in the country rose 4.5% from 105,000 tonnes in May last year.

Aggregate regional production for the initial five-month period of 2019 was 17.676 million tons, down 2.7% from 18.160 million tons in January-May 1918. The three leaders included Brazil (14.027 million tons), Argentina (1.936 million tons) and Peru (513,000 tons).