Steel production in the CIS in December and 2014

Steel production in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) declined 6.3 percent during December 2014 and declined 2.8 percent for the full year to 105.089 million tonnes, according to the latest data released by the World Steel Association.

The total volume of crude steel production in Belarus increased by 41.8 percent in December last year to 225 thousand tons, up from 159 thousand tons in December 2013. Throughout 2014, Belarus produced 2.514 million tons of steel, which is 12.0 percent more than 2.245 million tons in 2013.

Kazakhstan produced 274 thousand tons of steel in December 2014, which is 1.5 percent lower than the production of 278 thousand tons achieved in December 2013. In general, in 2014 Kazakhstan smelted 3.678 million tons of steel, which is 12.3 percent more than 3.275 million tons of the previous year.

The total volume of crude steel production in Russia during December last year increased by 2.6 percent to 5.949 million tons, compared with 5.798 million tons in December 2013. During 2014, Russia produced 70.651 million tons of steel, which indicates an increase of 2.6 compared to 68.856 million tons in 2013.

In December 2014, Moldova smelted 21 thousand tons of steel. Throughout 2014, steel production in the country increased by 81.3 percent to 344 thousand tons. At the same time, Uzbekistan's steel production decreased by 7.3 percent during December, and fell by 2.1 percent over the year to 731 thousand tons.

In addition, December 2014 saw a decline in steel production in Ukraine. Total steel production in Ukraine fell sharply to 1.903 million tonnes. The fall was 28.5 percent. For the whole of 2014, steel production in Ukraine fell by 17.1 percent to 27.170 million tonnes, compared with an output of 32.771 million tonnes in 2013.