Asia's Crude Steel Output Surged 3% in November

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The monthly production statistics released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) suggests that crude steel output by Asian countries surged higher by nearly 3% year-on-year during November 2017. All countries in the region, except South Korea reported higher output over the previous year. The combined output during the first eleven months of the year was up by 5.6%. It must be noted that global crude steel output recorded 3.7% jump during the month.

The regional output totaled 92.388 million tonnes (Mt) in November ’17, higher by 2.8% when matched with the production of 89.913 Mt in November 2016. The cumulative eleven-month output by Asian countries increased from just over 1 billion tonnes in November 2016 to 1.056 billion tonnes in Nov ’17.

China- the world’s topmost crude steel producer, accounted for nearly 72% of the regional production during the month. The Chinese production totaled 66.150 Mt, which is marginally higher by 2.2% over the previous year. The country had produced 64.723 Mt of crude steel in November 2016. The Chinese production totaled 764.802 Mt during the first eleven months of 2017.

Japan continued to remain as the second largest steel producer in the region. The Japanese steel output recorded marginal year-on-year increase by 1% from 8.619 Mt to 8.702 Mt. The country’s cumulative output until November in 2017 has declined marginally by 1% when matched with the prior year.

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The biggest jump in output was reported by Vietnam. The Vietnamese steel output rose rapidly by over 70% from 467,000 tons in November 2016 to 795,000 tons in November last year. The other country to witness strong growth in production was Pakistan, whose output jumped higher by over 37% to total around 460,000 tons. Thailand too reported 26% jump in production volumes. The other countries that recorded year-on-year increase were Taiwan (+8.6%) and India (+4.2%). On the other hand, South Korean production dropped marginally by 0.9% over the previous year, worldsteel data said.