Worldsteel just published the preliminary world crude steel production figures for January 2009. They show a small 5% increase in output from December data entirely attributable to China – a trend that seems to have been shortlived according to this article in the FT on February 20. For non FT-subscribers the article says:
Chinese steel mills appear to be cutting production, after a sharp increase since December, reflecting fresh concerns about domestic demand and doubts about whether the Chinese economy has bottomed out.
All other regions of the world were flat with the prior month. There were also a considerable number of significant revisions to the December data, so with that in mind, any inferences to be drawn from this month’s figures should be done so cautiously. Data in the Nerds Crude Steel spreadsheet below.