Turkey: Steel production surges 12.7 pct in 11 months

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's crude steel production surged 12.7 percent to 34.2 million tons in the first 11 months of 2017, compared to the same period of 2016, the World Steel Association (worldsteel) said on Wednesday.

In November, the country's crude steel production also rose 7 percent to 3.1 million tons year-on-year, according to worldsteel's world crude steel production report.

Turkey's production in the first 11 months of 2016 and just in November were 30.3 million tons and 2.9 million tons, respectively.

International total crude steel production -- including 66 countries -- was 136.3 million tons in November, up 3.7 percent compared to the same month in 2016, when it was 131.5 million tons.

During January-November, world production climbed 5.4 percent to 1.54 billion tons, from 1.46 billion tons in the same period last year.

China produced almost the half of the world’s crude steel, with 764.8 million tons in the first 11 months of 2017. Its production rose 5.7 percent in this period compared to the same period of last year.

Following China were Japan with 8.7 million tons, India with 8.3 million tons, the U.S. with 6.7 million tons, and Russia with 6 million tons.

Among EU states, Germany had the most crude steel production -- 3.48 million tons.

The crude steel capacity utilization ratio of the 66 countries in November 2017 was 70.7 percent, up 1.5 percent from November 2016.

Worldsteel’s members represent nearly 85 percent of the world's steel production.