Steel production in Asia and Africa increased significantly in June

Production statistics released by the Worldsteel indicate significant growth in steel production in Asia, Africa and the Middle East in June 2017. Production in the Middle East grew 9.4% over the previous year. The regions of Africa and Asia recorded year-on-year growth of 5.5% and 4.5%, respectively.

Asia
China, the world's leading producer, continued to record growth in steel production during the month, despite statements and attempts by the Chinese administration to reduce excess steel capacity. China's production totaled 73.231 million tonnes, up 5.7% on June last year. Vietnam reported the largest jump in production during the year. The country's production increased by 54% to 730,000 tons. Other countries reported growth in production: Pakistan (up 12%), Taiwan (up 5.6%) and Thailand (up 3.8%). On the other hand, Japanese production fell 4.3% from the previous year. Manufacturing in India also declined slightly by 1.1% from the previous year.

Africa
Egypt was the leading producer of crude steel in the African region during the month. Steel production in Egypt increased significantly, almost 41% over the previous year, to 531,000 tonnes in June. However, the increase in production was practically offset by the decline in production in Libya and South Africa. Libyan production fell by almost 43% over the same period last year, from 29,000 tons to 17,000 tons. Likewise, South African steel production declined 15.9% from the previous year. In June this year, the volume of production was 458,000 tons. At the same time, the production of Moroccan steel remained unchanged.