COVID19 effect ! World Steel output plunge 6% in March

Bhuabneswar : Global crude Steel output has dropped by 6% to 147.1 million tonnes (MT) in March 2020, said world steel Association (Worldsteel).The decline is mainly due to sharp decline in production by leading steel producing countries like China, India, Japan and South Korea.

China, the world’s top steel producer has reported 1.7% decrease in steel production at 79 MT. India’s crude Steel output declined by 13.9% to 8.7 MT, while, Japan and South Korea have reported 9.7% and 7.9% decline respectively.
“World crude steel production was 443.0 Mt in the first three months of 2020, down by 1.4% compared to the same period in 2019. Asia produced 315.2 Mt of crude steel in the first quarter of 2020, a decrease of 0.3% over the first quarter of 2019. The EU produced 38.3 Mt of crude steel in the first quarter of 2020, down by 10.0% compared to the same quarter of 2019. North America’s crude steel production in the first three months of 2020 was 29.5 Mt, a decrease of 4.0% compared to the first quarter of 2019” worldsteel said.

Majority of the world’s leading steel producing countries have announced lockdowns during the month to fight the pandemic.