Global steel production down 5% on year in April: worldsteel

Global crude steel production totaled 155.7 million mt in April, down 5% year on year, according to World Steel Association data published May 22.

The April global production was also 3.1% lower than the previous month, which had been the highest monthly level since May 2023.

The April total brought output for the first four months of the year to 625.4 million mt, just 0.9% lower year on year, the data showed.

Largest steelmaker China produced 85.9 million mt in April, down 7.2% from a year ago and falling 2.6% month on month, making up 55.2% of total global crude steel output.

China's January-April volume was also 3% lower year on year to 343.7 million mt.

The world's second-largest steel producer India saw steel output rise 3.6% on the year, but fall 5.8% on the month in April to 12.1 million mt. This brought four-month volumes to 49.5 million mt, up 8.45% on the year.

Japan's April production totaled 7.05 million mt, down 2.5% on the year and dropping 2% from March, with January-April output down 1.2% on the year to 28.5 million mt, the data showed.

April output from the US dropped 2.8% year on year and 1.9% month on month to 6.7 million mt, with the four-month output down 2.2% to 26.5 million mt.

Russia was estimated to have produced 6.2 million mt in April, down 5.7 % year on year and 3.2% lower than March. The estimated four-month total was 24.6 million mt, down 2.5% on the year.

South Korea produced 5.1 million mt of crude steel in April, down 10% year on year and falling 3.8% month on month to the lowest level since November 2022, with the January-April volume down 5% on the year to 21.2 million mt.

EU production up 1.1% on year

The EU produced 11.3 million mt of crude steel in April, up 1.1% year on year, but down 2.5% on the month. The January-April volume was down 0.6% on the year at 44.4 million mt.

Germany, the largest steel producer in Europe, saw its crude steel production jump 6.4% year on year in April to an estimated 3.4 million mt, although this was 3.1% lower on the month. This brought the January-April volumes to 13.1 million mt, up 6.1% from a year ago.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed domestic HRC prices in Northern Europe at Eur635/mt ex-works Ruhr May 21, down 8% since the start of 2024.

Turkey produced 2.8 million mt in April, rising 4.5% on the year, but 13% lower than March's volume to the lowest monthly level since August 2023. January-April production was also up 22% on the year to 12.3 million mt.

Brazil produced an estimated 2.7 million mt of steel in April, down 2.1% year on year and 3.1% lower on the month, while Iran's output decreased 12% on the year and 3.2% on the month to an estimated 2.7 million mt, a four-month low.

Production of pig iron from 38 countries was 105.6 million mt in April, down 6.3% year on year and 2.2% lower from March, the data showed.

Direct reduced iron produced worldwide in April amounted to 9.3 million mt, falling 12.6% year on year and down 2.6% from March, according to worldsteel.

Crude steel data covers the 64 countries that report to worldsteel, accounting for about 98% of the world's crude steel production.