World steel production down 7.8 pc in January to 117 MT

NEW DELHI: World crude steel production in January fell 7.8 per cent to 117 million tonnes mainly due to a staggering 13 per cent fall in output in China, World Steel Association (WSA) said today.

The association, whose members produce 85 per cent of the global steel production, said that global steel output was 127 million tonnes in January last year.

The fall in global steel output, the sharpest in recent times, was mainly because of 13 per cent lower production in China, world's biggest producer of the metal, to 52.1 million tonnes against 60 million tonnes a year ago.

India's production also decreased by 0.7 per cent to 6.1 million tonnes compared to 6.145 million tonnes in January last year.

Japan produced 8.6 million tonnes of steel in January this year, a dip of 10.6 per cent against the same month last year. South Korea's crude steel production also went down to 5.1 million tonnes, down 9.6 per cent over the same month last year.

"The world crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 59 countries in January 2012 rebounded slightly to 71.3 per cent, 0.5 percentage point higher than from December 2011," WSA said.