Steel Products Prices North America
November 19, 2014
Global Steel Production and Capacity Utilization
Written by Peter Wright
Production in October on a tons per day basis was 4.411 million tons, down from 4.485 in September. This was the fourth month since February when production was <4.5 million metric tons per day. October had one more production day than September and the month’s total increased from 134.562 million to 136.838. Since January 2008 on average, October monthly production has increased by 0.66 percent, this year October increased by 1.62 percent from September. The three month moving average (3MMA) of production in October on an annualized basis was 1.626 billion tons and a capacity utilization of 74.7 percent, (Figure 1). Capacity is now 2.2 billion tons. Since 2010 production has progressively increased and capacity utilization has decreased. The gap is widening. Sooner or later there has to be a correction which will probably be a major slowdown in capacity construction in China, if not an actual Chinese capacity decrease.
