North American Crude Steel Output Dropped 2.1% in January

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest production statistics published by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) indicates that crude steel production by the North American region declined marginally during the first month of the current year. The regional production dropped by 2.1% when compared with January 2017.

The North American crude steel production totaled 9.637 million tonnes (Mt) during January 2018, slightly lower by 2.1% when matched with the production during the corresponding month in 2017. The regional production had totaled 9.844 Mt in January 2017. It must be noted that North America had reported 5% surge in crude steel production to total nearly 116 Mt during the whole year 2017.

The leading crude steel producer during the month was the US. The country produced 6.822 Mt of crude steel, marginally lower by 2.2% when matched with the production of 6.975 Mt during January 2017. Mexico continued to remain as the second largest producer in the region. The country’s output too registered 3.5% year-on-year decline during the month. The output totaled 1.620 Mt as against the output of 1.678 Mt in Jan ’17. In third place was Canada with total production amounting to 1.140 Mt. The Canadian production remained essentially flat when compared with the year before.

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The country to report highest jump in production during the month was El Salvador. The output by the country surged higher by 25% from 8,000 tonnes to nearly 10,000 tonnes. The Cuban crude steel production too recovered during the month. The country produced 20,000 tonnes, higher by over 11% when compared with the production of 18,000 tonnes recorded during Jan ’17. Meantime, the production by Guatemala remained unchanged at 25,000 tonnes.

It must be noted that the global steel output witnessed marginal jump by 0.8% in January this year. Also, North America is the only region other than CIS to report year-on-year decline in crude steel output.