SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The crude steel production by South American countries nosedived during the month of July this year. This is upon comparison with the same month a year before.

In accordance with the latest production statistics published by the World Steel Association (worldsteel), the region produced a total of 3.121 million tonnes (Mt) of crude steel in July 2020. This is significantly lower by 6.1% than the production in July last year. It must be noted that the regional production had totalled 3.323 Mt in July 2019.

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The Brazilian production edged higher by 3.5% over the previous year. All the other major producing countries including Argentina, Chile and Colombia reported huge decline in production. The production by Argentina was down by 22.2% year-on-year from 418,000 tonnes to 325,000 tonnes. Similarly, the output by Chile too witnessed a decline of almost 37.8% from the previous year to total 65,000 tonnes in July ‘20. The sharpest declines were observed in Venezuela and Peru, whose outputs dropped by 88.2% and 71.2% respectively.

The year-to-date production until July ’20 by South American countries totalled 20.811 Mt, 17.2% lower when matched with the Jan-July ’19 production of 25.130 Mt. The topmost producer was Brazil, whose output totalled 17.072 Mt, lower by 13.9% year-on-year. The other primary producers of crude steel from January to July this year were Argentina (1.796 Mt), Chile (625,000 tonnes) and Colombia (577,000 tonnes).