Global raw-steel production rose 2.6% from September to October, totaling 136,522,876 metric tons, with similar percentage increases in most of the major steelmaking nations and regions tracked by the World Steel Association. The year-over-year comparison is even higher for October, with a 3.3% higher in October 2016 than in October 2015.
For the year-to-date, however, global raw-steel production is still slightly (-0.69%) below the January-October 2015 total.
World Steel Assn. tracks monthly raw-steel output and capacity utilization rates for 66 countries. Raw (or crude) steel is the output of basic oxygen furnaces and electric arc furnaces that is cast into semi-finished products, such as slabs, blooms, or billets. The World Steel Association reports tonnage and capacity utilization data for carbon and carbon alloy steel in 66 countries; data for production of stainless and specialty alloy steels are not included.
Recently World Steel issued a new short-range outlook for steel demand, and forecast that global steel demand will increase by 0.2% to 1.501 billion metric tons in 2016, having declined 3.0% in 2015. For 2017, World Steel forecasts that global steel demand will grow by 0.5% and will reach 1.51 billion metric tons.
As for capacity utilization, the association reports that during October it fell 0.6% from September to 69.6%. In October 2015, the global raw-steel capacity utilization was 68.2%.
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