Crude steel production in the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) fell -7% on-year in June to 148.3 million tonnes, Kallanish notes. The association reiterates, however, that many figures are estimates and likely to be revised next month due to the Covid-19 pandemic impact.

China continued to buck the trend, as did Vietnam, with output up 4.5% and 13.4% respectively in June to 91.58mt and 1.92mt. Output in India, Japan and South Korea declined -26%, -36% and -14% respectively to 6.92mt, 5.6mt and 5.1mt.

The EU28 saw output drop -25% to 10.16mt in June, with German and Italian output falling -27% and -13% respectively to 2.48mt and 1.8mt. French and Spanish output fell -35% and -32% respectively to 836,000t and 834,000t.

Turkish output, however, increased 4% to 2.8mt.

US production slumped -35% to 4.75mt, while Brazilian output is estimated to have fallen -27% to 2.1mt.

CIS output fell -5% in June to 7.95mt, with Russian production estimated to be down -7.6% to 5.6mt. Ukrainian output, however, increased 9% to 1.81mt.

Global steel output in January-June thus fell -6% on-year to 873.1mt.

For antitrust reasons worldsteel no longer produces a monthly global capacity utilisation ratio. Information on capacity can be found on the OECD website, worldsteel says.