World Steel Association: Chinese growth boosts global output

GLOBAL steel output rose 1.7 percent year on year to 136.8 million tons last month, driven mainly by Chinese production, the World Steel Association (WSA) said yesterday. Output rose by 1.5 percent in China, which produces half the world’s steel. Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels have been fighting government troops, posted an 11.7 percent decline to 2.5 million tons. Output by Russia rose 8.1 percent to 6.2 million tons. Production was stable in Japan at 9.3 million tons but grew 1.5 percent in South Korea to 68.3 million tons and India’s output grew 1.7 percent to 7 million tons. Output fell 2 percent across the EU to 13.3 million tons. US production was up 2.3 percent to 7.6 million tons. The capacity utilisation rate of the 65 countries reporting to the WSA reached 75.4 percent last month, down 2.9 percentage points from June. – Sapa-AFP