Among the countries that announced an increase in production compared to January 2018, the USA was in the lead. Steel production in this country increased by 11 percent in January 2019, reaching 7.6 million tonnes.
Turkey recorded the largest production decline, down 19.5 percent from the previous year, resulting in 2.6 million tonnes of steel produced in January this year.
According to the assessment of the Beijing Metallurgy Association of China (CISA), steel production in the PRC increased by 4.3 percent in a month compared to January 2018, reaching 75 million tons.
However, according to Worldsteel, production declines in other Asian countries. In January 2019, India produced 9.2 million tonnes of steel, down 1.9 percent from January 2018. Japan produced 8.1 million metric tons of steel, down 9.8 from a year earlier, while South Korea's steel production was 6.2 million metric tons, down 1.5 percent from January 2018 .
In the European Union, Italy's steel production in January 2019 was 2 million tons, down 3.6 percent from January 2018. French smelting decreased by 9.7 percent compared to January 2018. Spain, on the other hand, boosted steel production in January 2019, increasing it by 5.9 percent over the previous year.
Steel production in Ukraine has decreased by 4.9 percent since January 2018, reaching 1.9 million tonnes in January 2019. Russian steel production fell by 4.5 percent to 5.8 million tonnes.
Brazilian steel production in January 2019 was 2.9 million tonnes, up 2.3 percent from January 2018.
