Global Steel Production for August 2013: An Analysis

In August China’s steel production exceeded 50 percent of the global total for what we believe to be the first time. Global production in August was 130.352 million tonnes with a capacity utilization of 76.0 percent. In three months through August production was at an annual rate of 1.572 billion tonnes with a capacity utilization of 76.3 percent.

Capacity is now 2.076 billion tonnes (Figure 1). Global production this year is following the same pattern as the last three years by declining in the second half. Global growth in three months through August was 2.9 percent year over year, all regions except Asia and South America declined. Asia was up by 5.4 percent led by China up 7.8 percent. South America was up by 2.5 percent led by Argentina up 182 thousand tons and Brazil up 134 thousand tons. YTD eight months through August global growth was 2.4 percent but in the absence of China global growth was negative 2.7 percent (Table 1).