SA crude steel production falls 13.7%

Local steel production stood at 637 000 tons in November 2010.

November's production was 22.5% lower than the 713 000 tons produced in the same month two years ago.

In the 11 months to end November 2011, the country's crude steel production dropped 16.3% to 6.08 million tons from 7.27 million tons for the first eleven months of 2010.

SA continues to make up less than half of Africa's crude steel production.

In November Africa's output was 1.09 million tons, 20.8% lower than the 1.38 million tons produced in the same month last year and 15.8% down on the 1.29 million tons produced in November 2009.

The nine months to end November figure of 12.77 million tons shows that African output is 15.4% lower than the 15.08 million tons produced in the first eleven months of last year.

Production up

World crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association was 116 million tons in November 2011. This is 1.1% higher than November 2010.

China's crude steel production was 49.9 million tons, a slight decrease of 0.2% compared to November 2010.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan produced 8.7 million tons, a decrease of 3.2% compared to the same month last year while South Korea's crude steel production was 12.4% higher at 5.8 million tons in November.

In the European Union, Germany's crude steel production was 3.5 million tons, a decrease of 10.0% on November 2010; Italy produced 2.6 million tons, which is 12.3% higher year on year while France produced 4.2% more at 1.3 million tons.

The US produced 7.2 million tons in November 2011, an increase of 11.8% year on year and Brazilian crude steel production was 3.7% up at 2.7 million tons.

The world crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 64 countries in November 2011 declined to 73.4%, 2.8 percentage points down from October 2011.

"This is its lowest point for two years," the association noted.

Compared to November 2010, the utilisation ratio in November 2011 decreased by 2.6 percentage points.