The largest steel producers reduced production in October

Global steel production in October remained almost flat last month as declines in China, Japan and the US managed to offset higher productivity in Europe, Russia and healthy growth in India and South Korea.

Global steel production continues to suffer from economic cooling in China, the world's largest steel producer. Steel production for 65 countries was 137 million tons in October, a decrease of 0.1 percent from last month. Capacity utilization averaged 74.7 percent in October.

In China, a slump in the housing market, continued credit crunch and weak investment in infrastructure have hit domestic steel production and demand hard. In addition, steel output fell 0.5 percent to 9.4 million tonnes in Japan, the second largest producer. India, still the fourth largest producer, achieved 8.5 percent growth to 7.1 million tonnes, supported by investment in high-value infrastructure projects by the country's new government. South Korea was up 4.5 percent to 6.2 million tons.

In the United States, the third-largest steel producer, output fell 0.7 percent to 7.3 million tonnes, while in Canada it rose 9.4 percent to about 1.2 million. Among other major producers, Russia recorded an increase of 1 , 6 percent to 5.8 million tons. Products from Brazil, the largest producer in South America, rose 2.7 percent to 3.1 million tonnes, while products from Turkey fell 11 percent to 2.7 million tonnes. Steel production in the Middle East rose 8.4 percent to 2.5 million tonnes.

Germany, the largest producer in the EU region, cut steel output by 5.9 percent to 3.5 million tonnes. Italian production fell 5.4 percent to 2.1 million tonnes. At the same time, steel production in France rose 15 percent to about 1.5 million tonnes, while the UK recorded a 0.3 percent increase to 1.1 million tonnes. Ukraine reduced production by 28.7 percent to 1.9 million tons.