Global steel production rose only slightly from August to September, but overall production levels remain high — up 4.4% year-over-year. In its latest monthly summary, the World Steel Assn. reported September output totaled 151.7 million metric tons of raw steel, 0.3% higher than the August total but raising the year-to-date tonnage total to 1.35 billion metric tons, 5.4% higher than the nine-month total for 2017.
The World Steel Assn. reports raw-steel output for 64 countries, representing about 99% of the world’s raw-steel production output.
Raw steel is produced in basic-oxygen and electric-arc furnaces, and cast into semi-finished products, like billets, blooms, and slabs. Recently, World Steel issued its semi-annual short-range outlook and pegged the current year’s demand volume at 1.66 billion mt — 42 million metric tons higher than the last forecast six months ago. It added that the risks to demand growth also have increased during the interim period.
