Global steel output slips for fourth consecutive month in August

LONDON (Reuters) - Global crude steel output fell for a fourth consecutive month in August, mainly due to lower production in China and Japan, the world's biggest and second-biggest producers, industry data showed on Monday.

August output dropped 3 percent to 132 million tonnes from a year ago, with China output down 3.5 percent at 66.9 million tonnes, and Japan down 5.8 percent at 8.8 million tonnes, World Steel Association (Worldsteel) data showed.

China accounts for about half of global steel production. Its output has been falling as its once stellar pace of economic growth slows, leaving it with steel over-capacity estimated at around 300 million tonnes.

The country has been exporting steel at record levels as a result, a factor that has helped pushed global steel prices to their lowest in more than 10 years, with little prospect of a near term recovery.

As a case in point, the data showed global capacity utilisation rates fell 3.6 percent to 68 percent in August -- marking a decline in mills' pricing power because of their collective ability to increase output if demand recovers.

Elsewhere, the data also showed output in the United States, the world's third-largest producer, fell 10 percent as mills there battle cheap imports and labour disputes, while output in India, the world's fourth-largest producer, rose 2.8 percent.

India, home to about a billion people and with a growing economy, is one of the few bright spots for world steel demand.

(Reporting by Maytaal Angel; Editing by Mark Potter)