The World Steel Association (worldsteel) in its latest report has said that India's crude steel output declined over 65% to 3.13 million tonnes (MT) during April as compared to 9.02 MT during the same month a year ago. The government imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 25 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic which has impacted production, demand and supply of steel in India. The country had posted a 14% decline in steel output at 8.65 MT in March as compared with 10.04 MT in March 2019.
Global steel output also declined 13% to 137.09 MT as compared with 157.67 MT in April 2019. The global industry body said due to the ongoing difficulties presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, many of this month's (April) figures are estimates that may be revised with next month's production update.
The data showed China, which had for the first time in many months reported a 1.7% fall in its output in March at 78.97 MT, has started showing growth in production. The country, which has a sizeable share in global output, produced 85.03 MT steel in April, a marginal rise of 0.2% as compared with 84.87 MT in the corresponding month of 2019.
US produced 4.96 MT of crude steel in April, 32% lower than 7.35 MT in the year-ago month. Japan registered a 23% fall in crude steel production at 6.61 MT in April 2020 as against 8.64 MT in April 2019. South Korea produced 5.50 MT crude steel, down 8.4% from 6 MT in April 2019. In the EU, Germany estimated 3 MT of crude steel production in April 2020, down 10.7% from April 2019. Italy's production was down by 30.7% at 1.35 MT.
According to the report, France estimated 0.80 MT of crude steel production in April 2020, a 37.9% decrease compared to April 2019, while Spain produced 0.67 MT of crude steel in April 2020, down 48% from April 2019. Russia estimated 4.70 MT of crude steel production in April 2020, Ukraine produced 1.33 MT, while Brazil produced 1.81 MT. Turkey's crude steel production for April 2020 was 2.24 MT.
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