World crude steel production was 881.5 Mt in H1 2018, up 4.6% when compared to 2017. Asia produced 613.9 Mt of crude steel, up 5.2% over H1 2017. The EU produced 87.3 Mt of crude steel in the first half of 2018, up 1.6% compared to the same period of 2017. North America’s crude steel production in the first six months of 2018 was 59Mt, an increase of 2.4% compared to H1 2017. The CIS produced 50.5Mt of crude steel in the first six months of 2018, an increase of 2.8% over H1 2017.

 

China’s crude steel production for June 2018 was 80.2Mt, an increase of 7.5% compared to June last year. Japan produced 8.8 Mt of crude steel in June 2018, up 4.2% on June 2017. India produced 8.7Mt of crude steel in June 2018, up 7.4% compared to June 2017. South Korea’s crude steel production was 6.1 Mt in June 2018, up 3.2% on June 2017.

 

Italy produced 2.1Mt of crude steel, up by 1.5% on June 2017 while France produced 1.3Mt, a decrease of 4.4% compared to June 2017.

 

Turkey’s crude steel production for June 2018 was up by 0.7% on June 2017 at 3Mt.

 

Crude steel production in Ukraine was 1.7Mt this month, up 7.5% on June last year.

 

The US produced 6.8 Mt of crude steel in June 2018, an increase of 0.8% compared to June 2017.

 

The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 64 countries in June 2018 was 78.5%, which is 3.8 percentage points higher than in June 2017. Compared to May 2018, it is one percentage point higher.