World steel production should move past 2008’s level this month as the surge in the Chinese economy boosts global output.
China’s steel production eased last month, but it has still brought the global output level close to what it was before the start of the second stage of the global economic crisis last October.
According to the World Steel Association figures released on Friday, production in the 66 member countries (which includes the main metal producers in the world) was 0.6% lower in September than in September 2008 at 107 million tonnes. September 2008 saw 10.7.9 million tonnes produced.
That was much better than the August figure (10.6.5 million tonnes) which was 5.5% under the August 2008 level.
And total crude steel production in the 66 reporting countries for the first nine months of 2009 was 866 million tonnes, down 16.4% from the first nine months of 2008.
But that represented an improvement from the performance in the first eight months of this year which was more than 18% lower than the same period of 2008.
Output in China was up 28.7% in September on a 12-month comparison to 50.7 million tonnes, compared with the same month in 2008 when steel production was starting to ease.
In August Chinese crude steel production hit an all time high of 52.3 million tonnes, which was up 22% on the same month in 2008.
That was much better than Japan’s output which was down 18% over the year (unchanged from August), Germany’s which was 21.7% lower and the US level which was off 31.4% from a year ago.
Both Germany and the US recorded small increases from August, but production from a year ago was much better because of falling output in 2008.
Chinese production for the first nine months of the year was up 7.5% at just over 420 million tonnes, from 391 million.
Global steel production for the first nine months of this year was 866 million tonnes, 16.4% lower than for the same period in 2008, the Association said. In the eight months to August, it was down 18%, so the improvement is tangible.
Australian production rose again in September from August, but was still 7.2% down on the September 2008 level.
WTA figures show that production in September was 602,000 tonnes of crude steel, up from 511,000 in August, but still under the 655,000 a year ago.
For the first nine months of this year Australian steel production was 3.417 million tonnes, down 43% from the 5.989 million for the same period of 2008.
That’s again good news for BlueScope and OneSteel, but with the rise of the Aussie dollar continuing, both companies are feeling the pain with exports and on pricing of imports.
Elsewhere in Asia, Japan produced 8.3 million metric tonnes (mmt) of crude steel in September 2009, down 18% compared to the same month last year.
South Korea showed a decline of 2.4% from September 2008, producing 4.4 mmt of crude steel in September of this year.
In the EU, German crude steel production was 3.2 mmt in September, down 21.7% from September 2008. France produced 1.3 mmt in September -15.3% lower than September last year. Turkey produced 2.1 mmt of crude steel in September, off a tiny 1.8% from September 2008.
The US produced 5.4 mmt of crude steel in September of this year, down 31.4% compared with the same month last year.
Iran produced 0.9 mmt of crude steel, 4% more than in September 2008.
