World steel production increased by 3% in September

World crude steel production continued to grow in September 2020. The monthly production statistics released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) indicate a 2.9% increase in production from the same month a year earlier. Production in September '20 in the 64 countries represented by the Association was 156.359 million tons (Mt), compared to 151.885 Mt in September last year.

The total volume of steel production in the world in the first nine months of this year amounted to 1.347 billion tons, which is 3.2% less than in the previous year. In January-September 2019, production amounted to only 1.392 billion tons.

Production in the Asian region rose 7.4% in September, driven mainly by an increase in production in China by about 11% year on year. Marked production declines across the region, especially Qatar, resulted in an 11% year-on-year decrease in crude steel production in the Middle East region. Steel production in Africa also fell sharply by 14% from the previous year. Production in the United States fell significantly by 18.5%, which in turn led to a drop in production in the North American region by 17.4%.

Meanwhile, production in South America increased marginally by 0.9% over the same period last year. In the CIS and EU-28 regions, there was also a decline in production by 0.3% and 14%, respectively. In contrast, in the Other Europe region, production increased by 14.2%. Production in the Oceania region is down 12.8% from last September.