North American Crude Steel Output Dropped 2.3% in February

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster):  The region-wise monthly steel production statistics for the month of February 2018, published by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) indicates marginal decline in steel output by North American countries. This is at a time when global crude steel output managed to record 3.5% uptick when compared with February last year.

The North American crude steel production totaled 9.056 million tonnes (Mt) in Feb ’18, marginally lower by 2.3% when matched with the year before. The regional steel production had totaled 9.274 Mt in February 2017.

The USA continued to remain as the largest producer in the region. The US output recorded marginal growth of 0.4% year-on-year from 6.423 Mt to 6.446 Mt. The steel mill shipments by the country had declined in January. In second place was Mexico with total production of 1.535 Mt during the month. The Mexican output dropped significantly by over 7% when compared with the output of 1.652 Mt in February last year. Canada-the third largest producer in the region witnessed huge year-on-year decline in output. The monthly output dropped sharply from 1.149 Mt to 1.030 Mt over the year. Among other countries, Guatemala’s output rose by 4%, whereas those by Cuba and El Salvador fell sharply.

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The cumulative North American crude steel output during the first two months of the current year ended marginally lower. The regional output totaled 18.838 Mt, as against the output of 19.118 Mt recorded in Jan-Feb ’17.

All countries except Guatemala witnessed reduced output in Jan-Feb ’18. El Salvador reported 17% decline in output, followed by Canada and Cuba with 5.2% and 4.7% declines respectively. The Mexican output dropped nearly 3%. The US too reported marginal decline of 0.5% over the previous year. Meantime, Guatemala saw 3.1% jump in steel production when compared with the previous year.

It must be noted that the global crude steel output had surged higher by 3.5% in February.