SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The crude steel production by 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) was 152.694 million tonnes (Mt) in July this year. This is significantly down by 2.5% when compared to July 2019.

Only Asia, Oceania and Other Europe regions reported increased output over the previous year. The African and European countries reported substantial decline in output. The Americas too recorded notable decline in output. The Middle East steel production was down marginally by 0.8%, worldsteel data said.

The production decline was led by North America and EU-28 countries, whose output registered nearly 28% and 24% year-on-year dip in production respectively. The output by China managed to post 9.1% surge, in contrary to other major producers. The U.S. output dropped by over 29%, whereas the Canadian steel output registered almost 25% decline from July 2019 levels. The Russian output was down by 5%, whereas the Turkish production surged higher by 7.4%.

The cumulative output by world countries totalled 1.027 billion tonnes until July this year, down marginally by 5.3% from the year-ago period. The production had totalled 1.085 billion tonnes in Jan-July’19. The Chinese output totalled 593.174 Mt, accounting for nearly 58% of the global steel output during the initial seven-month period of the year.