Monday, July 20, 2009

World Steel Fall Slows Down

The recent fall in world steel output slowed in June, when production fell 16 percent from output in the same month last year to 99.8 million tonnes, with China showing a gain, the World Steel Association reported on Monday.

Production on a yearly basis had declined 21 percent in May, 23.6 percent in April and 23.5 percent in March.

The association, which assesses data from 66 countries, said output in the first half of the year was down 21.3 percent from the same period of 2008.

In Asia, Chinese steel production rose 6.0 percent to 49.4 million tonnes from a year earlier while output fell 33.6 percent in Japan to 6.9 million tonnes and 14.4 percent to 4.0 million tonnes in South Korea.

The United States produced 4.4 million tonnes of steel in June 2009, down 46.9 percent from June 2008, while in Brazil output fell 33.9 percent to 1.9 million tonnes.

Among big producers in Europe, Germany turned out 2.5 million tonnes, a fall of 41.1 percent.

In Russia steel production in June came to 4.9 million tonnes, down 22.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the report.

Source: AFP

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