Crude steel output at 9.18 mt in January
New Delhi: India's crude steel output fell about two per cent to 9.180 million tonne (MT) during January 2019, according to World Steel Association (worldsteel). The country had produced 9.354 MT during the same month in 2018, according to worldsteel's latest report.
Global crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the association was 146.70 MT in January 2019, up one per cent compared to the year ago month, it said. Last month, China's crude steel production stood at 75.013 MT, higher by 4.3 per cent as against 71.887 MT output in January 2018.
China is the world's largest steel producing country. While India produced 9.2 MT of crude steel in January 2019, Japan and South Korea produced 8.1 MT and 6.2 MT, respectively. The production of the US was at 7.6 MT, a rise of 11 per cent over January 2018. Italy produced 2 MT, France 1.2 MT, Spain 1.2 MT, Ukraine 1.9 MT, Brazil 2.9 MT and Turkey 2.6 MT.
The members of worldsteel represent approximately 85 per cent of the world's steel production, including over 160 steel producers with 9 of the 10 largest steel companies, national and regional steel industry associations, and steel research institutes.
Meanwhile, rating agency Crisil said on Wednesday that domestic iron ore prices are likely to rise by three to four per cent in 2019 on account of global supply glitch. "We foresee domestic iron ore prices rising three to four per cent during 2019. This would have a direct bearing on 62 per cent of the steel production that is based on supply from merchant miners," Crisil Research Senior Director Prasad Koparkar said in a statement. Further, domestic steel prices are likely to soften following global cues, he said. "This would heap pressure on margins of steel makers who lack captive iron ore supply - especially long steel players - impacting their gross spreads by two-four per cent," he added. Global iron ore prices have surged 30 per cent to $90 per tonne as of February 2019 from $69 per tonne in December 2018 on supply disruption at Vale's mines in Brazil, which account for 90 per cent of the country's output.
