Africa's steel production plummets

Steel production in the African region fell more than 15% in July 2019, according to the latest data released by the World Steel Association.

Crude steel production in July 2019 by African countries was 1.051 million tonnes. This compares to production of 1.238 million tonnes in July last year, which means a 15.1% decline year on year.

Egypt produced 526,000 tonnes of crude steel, down 20.2% from 660,000 tonnes in July 2018. Crude steel production in Libya increased significantly by 38.7% to 60,000 tons in January January this year, when it was compared to 43,000 tons. produced in the same month a year earlier. Steel production in South Africa fell more than 13% from the previous year to 464,000 tonnes in July this year, compared to 535,000 tonnes in the same month a year earlier.

Aggregate steel production in the African region was 8.562 million tonnes, a slight increase of 1.7% from 8.418 million tonnes from January to July 2018. Steel production in Egypt during the initial seven-month period of the current year was 4.623 million tonnes. compared with 4.459 million tons a year earlier. Other key producers alongside their production were South Africa (3.598 million tonnes) and Libya (340,000 tonnes).