Steel production in the EU-28 in the first half of 2019 fell by 3%

European crude steel production faced a slight decline in June this year. According to the World Steel Association (worldsteel), for the month, domestic production amounted to 13.790 million tons. This is slightly lower, at 3.0%, when compared with the 14.219 million tonnes output achieved by the region in the same month a year earlier. Aggregate steel output in the first half of 2019 also reported a nominal decline of almost 2.5% over the prior year.

The top five steel producing countries in the region include Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Poland. The aggregate production in the above five countries was 8.791 million tonnes, which is approximately 64% of the total regional production.

Germany topped the list, producing 3.405 million tonnes of steel in a month. German production recorded a 5.8% decline over the previous year. Italy also reported a slight decrease in steel production during the month. Italian production was 2.086 million tonnes, a slight decrease of 2.5% year on year. France and Spain reported increases in production, while Poland's production fell more than 7% from the previous year.

Steel production in the EU-28 was 84.744 million tonnes during the initial six-month period of the current year. During this period, only Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and Sweden recorded an annual increase in production. The largest production decline was recorded in Bulgaria, where production fell by 16% year on year.