World steel production growth at 5.7%

India's production stood at 27 million tonnes, an increase of 4.2 per cent while China produced 263.2 million tonnes of crude steel, an increase of 9.6 per cent compared to the same period in 2007.

India's production growth was below the Asian average in June. India accounted for 4.3 million tonnes, an increase of 5.2 per cent in June compared to an overall Asian production of 68.3 million tonnes crude
steel in June 2008 compared to 62.8 million tonnes in June 2007, an 8.7 per cent increase in crude steel production.

 

Indian domestic steel producers pointed out that some of the projects would go onstream in the second half of the year and the percentage of production increase could pick up in the latter half of the year.

Last year, production grew by around six per cent. However, due to the huge gap in prices, imports this year are negligible. Last year, India imported around six million tonnes of steel but currently the gap in prices is more than $200 per tonne as the domestic producers
have committed to the government that prices would not be increased till July to help fight inflation.

The China story appeared to be showing some signs of a slowdown. In June 2008, China's moving annual total (MAT) growth rate slowed further to 10.2 per cent compared to its MAT growth rate peak of 26.3 per cent in January 2006. China's crude steel production for June 2008, was 46.9 million tonnes, an increase of 10.2 per cent.

Total crude steel production in the EU was 18.1 million tonnes, 1.8 per cent higher than for June 2007. The largest producer in the EU is Germany, with 4.1 million tonnes of crude steel, an increase of 2.1 per cent compared to the same period last year.

The "Other Europe" region of seven countries outside the EU produced 2.9 million tonnes in June 2008, an increase of 15.5 per cent from June 2007. Turkey's crude steel production was 2.5 million tonnes, which was 17.5 per cent higher than the same month last year.

Turkey produced 10.6 per cent more crude steel in the first six months of 2008 than over the same period last year. IISI represents approximately 180 steel producers and 75 per cent of world's steel (excluding China) and the membership in China now accounts for over 20 per cent production.