North American steel production up 6.3%

Crude steel production data released in November 2018 by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) indicates a significant jump in regional production in North America. Production in the region increased by 6.3% year-on-year to 10.105 million tonnes. It should be noted that production in North America in November 2017 was only 9.504 million tonnes.

The United States, the largest steel producer in the region, posted an 11.8% increase in production. Production volume amounted to 7.425 million tons, which is more than 73% of the total production in the region. Mexico continued to be the second largest producer despite an 8.2% annual production decline. The volume of production in Mexico for the month was about 1.5 million tons. In third place was Canada with an overall decline in production by more than 4% to 1.125 million tons. Other key steel producers in the region were Guatemala (25,000 tonnes), Cuba (20,000 tonnes) and El Salvador (10,000 tonnes).

Aggregate production in the first eleven months of this year was 110.186 million tonnes, up 3.7% from 106.219 million tonnes in the corresponding period in 2017. All countries except Canada increased production during the 2018 period. The top three in January-November 2018 included the United States (79.156 million tonnes), Mexico (18.541 million tonnes) and Canada (11.924 million tonnes).