Steel production in Asia declines significantly in the first half of the year

All countries in the region, except China and Vietnam, recorded a decline in production.
Crude steel production in the Asian countries represented by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) fell slightly this June by 2.3% compared to the same month a year earlier.

The monthly production data shows that the region's production for the month was 113.297 million tonnes. This compares with the output of 116.004 million tons in June last year.

All countries in the region, except China and Vietnam, recorded a decline in production. Production in China increased by 4.5% over the previous year to 91.579 million tonnes. It should be noted that steel production in the country in June last year amounted to only 87.671 million tons. Chinese production accounts for more than 80% of regional production. The second largest producer was India, which reported a 26.3% annual production decline to 6.917 million tonnes. With a monthly production of 5.598 million tonnes, Japan has become the third leading producer in the Asian region.

The total production of steel from January to June this year in the region exceeded 641.997 million tons. This is slightly lower by 3% when compared with the production of 661.592 million tons in January-June 1919. The top three regional steel-producing countries were China (499.011 million tonnes), India (43.127 million tonnes) and Japan (42.209 million tonnes).