Global steel production up in February

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Global crude steel production soared by 2.1% last month on a yearly basis, the World Steel Association (worldsteel) announced on Monday.

"World crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the worldsteel was 142.4 million tonnes in February 2020," the association said.

China produced 74.8 million tons of crude steel in February, up 5% compared to the same month last year, while India and Japan's crude steel production increased by 1.5% and 2.2% to reach 9.6 million tons and 7.9 million tons, respectively.

In the EU side, Italy produced 2 million tons of crude steel with a 0.1% annual increase, while France posted 1.3% decrease by producing 1.2 million tons of crude steel.

"The U.S. produced 7.2 million tons of crude steel in February 2020, an increase of 3.0% compared to February 2019," the worldsteel said.

Brazil saw a decline of 1.3% in the crude steel production, manufacturing 2.7 million tons.

Turkey saw a significant increase in the month with 8.2%, produced 2.9 million tons of crude steel.

The World Steel Association is a prominent industry organization, as its members represent around 85 percent of the global steel production with more than 160 steel producers, and releases monthly crude steel production figures for the 64 countries reporting to the association.