China produced 83.2 million tonnes in August, accounting for 53% of world output and dropping 13.2% on August, 2020. In other parts of Asia, Japanese production rose 22.9% year-on-year, Indian production increased 8.2%, and South Korean output rose 6.2%.
European Union 27 crude steel production increased 27.1% on last August following a 6.7% increase in Germany (and a 44.6% increase in the European Union’s second largest producer, Italy, based on Federacciai data published by SteelOrbis). North American production rose 24.4% with US output up 26.8%. Other significant changes compared to last August include higher production in Brazil (+14.1%) and Russia (+4.4%).
Based on reported import licenses, US long products imports increased 32% from 195,000 short tons in August, 2020 to 256,000 tons in August, 2021. Licenses indicate that the rise was mainly due to higher Wire Rod imports from Japan, Mexico and Korea. Parallel Flange Sections imports also rose significantly from a number of countries including South Korea, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates.
US long products imports in the first eight months of 2021 were 22% higher than in the same period last year with the largest volumes rising for Wire Rod (+44%), Light Shapes (+71%) and Parallel Flange Sections (+32%).
US long products import licenses
January 2015 to August 2021
Short tons
Construction of the new headquarters of the MEL (European Metropolis of Lille, France) May 2019 by Lamiot, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Our steel industry readers will probably be interested to know that Midrex just published its 2020 World Direct Reduction Statistics report. World DRI production reached 104.4 million metric tonnes in 2020, a 3.4% decline from 2019 levels.
The First River Steel Data Room has already uploaded the report’s DRI production and shipments data by product type, production process, country, region and shipment method. The chart below illustrates how the Middle East and Asia continue to dominate world production, accounting for 81% of 2020 world production combined.
If you are looking to see more of the detail and create your own easily customizable charts, try a free Steel Data Room trial.
If you are following the European steel industry, you will want easy access to the latest figures published in the European Steel Association (Eurofer) quarterly report “Economic and Steel Market Outlook“. This week’s featured Steel Data Room dataset stores all the data from the August, 2021 Eurofer report, which includes steel industry activity up to and including the first quarter of 2021, as well as steel consumption forecasts to 2022.
The chart below illustrates annual apparent steel consumption in the 27 European Union Countries from 2013 to 2022. Eurofer expects consumption in 2021 to rebound to close to 2019 levels at 143 million metric tonnes and to reach 149 million tonnes in 2022, still lower than 2018’s recent peak of 152 million tonnes.
Interested in taking a look? Try a free Steel Data Room trial. You’ll see how the Data Room automatically updates all the charts you create so there’s no need search for the newest report and revise the data.
Based on reported import licenses, US flat products imports increased 94% from 465,000 short tons in August, 2020 to 903,000 tons in August, 2021. The rise was mainly due to higher hot rolled imports from Canada, the Netherlands, Egypt and South Korea. Hot dip galvanized imports also rose significantly from Brazil, Mexico, Vietnam and Turkey.
Flat products imports in the first eight months of 2021 were 43% higher than in the same period last year. Comparing 2021 to 2020, imports of hot rolled rose 75%, imports of hot dip galvanized increased 20%, imports of cold rolled rose 19% and imports of cut plate rose 49%.
US flat products import licenses
January 2014 to August 2021
Short tons
Slabs at Novolipetsk (NLMK Group) from Worldsteel Image Library
Worldsteel reported crude steel production in China at 86.8 million metric tonnes in July, 8.4% lower than in July, 2020. China crude steel production in the first seven months of 2020 was 6.6% higher than in the same period last year.
Data from China’s General Administration of Customs show net finished steel exports (exports minus imports) in July at 4.6 million tonnes, 194.3% higher than in July, 2020. Net finished steel exports in the first seven months of 2021 were 51.1% higher than in the first seven months of 2020.
