Global steel production rises slightly in August

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Global crude steel output rose slightly by 0.6% year-on-year in August, according to the World Steel Association (worldsteel).

"World crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the worldsteel was 156.2 million tonnes in August 2020," the association said late Thursday.

Turkey, the seventh-largest crude steel producer, saw a 22.9% rise in crude steel production to 3.2 million tons during the same period.

China produced 94.8 million tons of crude steel this August, up 8.4% from the same month last year.

India and Japan's crude steel production fell 4.4% and 20.6% to 8.5 million tons and 6.4 million tons, respectively.

The figure was 5.6 million tons in the US, a drop of 24.4% from August 2019.

On the EU side, Germany produced 2.8 million tons of crude steel, down 13.4% on an annual basis.

The World Steel Association is a prominent industry group, with its members representing around 85% of global steel production with more than 160 steel producers.

The group stressed that due to ongoing difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, many August figures are estimates that may be revised with next month’s production update.