Economy
March 24, 2020
Global Steel Production Through February
Written by Peter Wright
Global steel production was relatively strong in February, but that was before the coronavirus really began to slow the economy. The IMF projects that the impending global recession will be as bad or worse than the global financial crisis a decade ago .
Figure 1 shows annualized monthly global steel production on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis and capacity utilization since February 2000. Based on OECD data (see below), capacity utilization in February on a 3MMA basis was 77.0 percent, and January was revised down to 80.9 percent. On a tons-per-day basis (not a 3MMA), production in February was 4.941 million metric tons, down from June’s all-time high of 5.305 million metric tons, but actually up by 1.7 percent from January.
