India, China, Japan drive global steel output in Oct

Global steel production rose by a healthy 3.3 per cent to 136.5 million tonnes (mt) last month against October 2015 aided by growth in major producers like India, China and Japan, data from World Steel Association showed.

"India's crude steel production was 8.3 mt in October 2016, up by 12.3 per cent on October 2015," the association (World Steel) said.

China's crude steel production for October 2016 was 68.5 mt, a rise of 4 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y), while Japan produced 9 mt of the metal, up 0.6 per cent, it added.

"The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 65 countries in October 2016 was 69.6 per cent. It was 68.2 per cent in October 2015. The October 2016 capacity utilisation ratio is 0.6 percentage points lower than the September 2016 ratio," World Steel said.

In the EU, Germany produced 3.5 mt of steel in October 2016, a decrease of 3.7 per cent y-o-y, while Italy produced 2.1 mt of crude steel, up 11 per cent.

Spain's steel production fell 10.5 per cent year-on-year to 1.2 mt in October 2016, whereas Turkey registered a growth of 8.6 per cent at 3 mt.

In October, Russia produced 5.9 mt of crude steel, up 2 per cent from October 2015. Ukraine produced 1.9 mt, down 6.1 per cent compared to the same month in 2015.

The US produced 6.4 mt steel in October, a decline of 2.5 per cent yoy whereas production of the metal in Brazil fell 8.8 per cent to 2.7 mt.