World crude steel production was 836.0 Mt in the first six months of 2017, up by 4.5% compared to the same period in 2016. Asia produced 576.8 Mt of crude steel, an increase of 4.8% over the first half of 2016. The EU produced 86.1 Mt of crude steel in the first half of 2017, up by 4.1% compared to the same period of 2016. North America’s crude steel production in the first six months of 2017 was 57.4 Mt, an increase of 2.4% compared to the first half of 2016. The C.I.S. produced 49.7 Mt of crude steel in the first six months of 2017, a decrease of -2.5% over the same months of 2016.
China’s crude steel production for June 2017 was 73.2 Mt, an increase of 5.7% compared to June 2016. Japan produced 8.4 Mt of crude steel in June 2017, a decrease of -4.3% compared to June 2016. South Korea produced 5.9 Mt of crude steel in June 2017, an increase of 7.7% compared to June 2016.
In the EU, Germany produced 3.6 Mt of crude steel in June 2017, a decrease of -1.7% compared to June 2016. Italy produced 2.1 Mt of crude steel, up by 1.8% on June 2016. France produced 1.3 Mt of crude steel, up by 1.3% compared to June 2016. Spain produced 1.3 Mt of crude steel, up by 8.1% on June 2016. Turkey’s crude steel production for June 2017 was 3.0 Mt, up by 7.1% on June 2016.
The US produced 6.7 Mt of crude steel in June 2017, a decrease of -1.7% compared to June 2016. Brazil’s crude steel production for June 2017 was 2.6 Mt, up by 4.0% on June 2016.
The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 67 countries in June 2017 was 73.0%. This is 1.4 percentage points higher than June 2016. Compared to May 2017, it is 1.3 percentage points higher.