Now here’s a story you probably won’t read amid all the talk of slowing China and another fall in world iron ore prices – global crude steel production in March jumped to a new all time monthly high of more than 140 million tonnes, up on both March 2013 and February this year.
And while China reported higher production in March and the March quarter, the output grew faster in the eurozone economies (especially Germany, Spain, Italy and France) and in South Korea and Japan.
Even thought its clear that China’s economy has slowed this year which has seen a slowing in demand and production from the 3.5% rate in 2013, other countries are seeing a rebound that is offsetting China’s weakness.
Japan has been solid, but the continuing rebound in Europe and economies such as South Korea in Asia, plus the continuing strength of US demand and output, are more than managing to offset the sluggish level of demand in China.
The 141.335 million tonnes produced globally last month was up 2.7% on March last year and a huge 13% on February’s 125 million tonnes.
The previous monthly record was just over 137 million tonnes produced in January of this year.
And global crude steel production for the first quarter cracked the 400 million tonne mark for the first time as well at 404 million tonnes.
That was up 14 million tonnes, or 3.5% above the 389.7 million tonnes in the first three months of last year, and was driven by Europe and not China.
All that helps explain the solid rise in Australian iron ore exports (as reported by BHP Biliton, Rio Tinto and Fortescue).
But world iron ore prices haven’t matched that – falling, rising and then dipping under $US110 a tonne overnight Wednesday, and probably going as low as $US100 a tonne in the next month or so with reports of high stocks of ore in China and weak demand for steel products.
If that happens watch the share prices of BHP, Rio and Fortescue take a pounding.
In the first three months of 2014, Asia produced 274.0 million tonnes (Mt) of crude steel, an increase of 2.6% over the first quarter of 2013.
The EU produced 43.8 Mt of crude steel in the first quarter of 2014, up by 6.7% compared to the same quarter of 2013.
That was much faster than the 2.4% rise, to an estimated 202.7 million tonnes produced in China in the first quarter.
North America’s crude steel production in the first three months of 2014 was 29.9 Mt, up 0.8% compared to the first quarter of 2013.
The C.I.S. (mostly Russia) produced 26.3 Mt of crude steel in the first three months of 2014, down 2.8% over the same months of 2013.
China’s crude steel production for March was 70.3 Mt, up 2.2% compared to March 2013.
Elsewhere in Asia, Japan produced 9.7 Mt of crude steel in March, an increase of 2.9% over March 2013. South Korea’s crude steel production was 6.1 Mt in March, up a sharp 8.0% on March 2013.
In the EU, Germany produced 4.0 Mt of crude steel in March 2014, an increase of 6.1% compared to March 2013. Italy produced 2.4 Mt of crude steel, up by 8.0% compared to March 2013. France’s crude steel production was 1.4 Mt, an increase of 4.1% on March 2013. Spain produced 1.3 Mt of crude steel, up by 4.1% compared to March 2013.
Turkey’s crude steel production for March 2014 was 2.8 Mt, down 4.3% on March 2013 and a sign of the strains now appearing in that economy.
In March 2014, Russia produced 6.0 Mt of crude steel, an increase of 1.3% compared to the same month 2013. Ukraine’s production was 2.7 Mt in March 2014, down by -7.7% on March 2013 (which also shows the strain of the rising tensions with Russia and their impact on the wider economy).
The US produced 7.4 Mt of crude steel in March 2014, up by 0.9% on March 2013.
The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio for the 65 countries in March 2014 was 79.0%, 0.4 percentage points lower than March 2013.
But compared to February 2014, it was 1.4 percentage points higher, another positive sign, and 4.6 percentage points higher than in December of last year.
