New Delhi: At a time when global crude steel production is witnessing downward trend due to lockdowns in various countries in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, China has shown an increase in the output in the last two months. In April and May, when the world was witnessing the peak of Covid-19 cases, the country produced 177.3 million tonne (MT) of crude steel in these two months and continued to hold its top position in the world. On the other hand, India’s production suffered badly due to lockdown, with the companies producing only 8.9 MT crude steel in these two months.
According to the latest World Steel Association (WSA) report, global crude steel output slipped to 8.7% in May (compared to May 2019) to 148.8 MT, as many steel companies closed their operations due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But the output from China, which is also the largest producer and consumer of steel, increased 4.2% year-on-year to 92.3 MT in May. What is interesting is that in April too, despite the peak of Covid-19 pandemic across the world, China produced 85 MT, an increase of 0.2%. That was the month when the world crude steel production was 137.1 MT, a decrease of 13 % compared to April 2019. In March too, China produced 79 MT of crude steel, but it was 1.7% lower compared to March 2019. Sources in the steel sector said this happened because China started lifting lockdowns from its regions much earlier, while many other steel producing countries are still having lockdowns in different stages. In India, though the “Unlockdown-2” has commenced, operations have not started as many states are still imposing lockdowns in parts. Japan, as per the report, produced 5.9 MT of crude steel in May, down 31.8% on May 2019, whereas India produced 5.8 MT of crude steel in May, down 39.1% on May 2019. South Korea’s steel production for May was 5.4 MT, down by 14.1% on May last year. The production dipped by 36.6% (4.8 MT) in the United States and 26.8% in the European Union (10.5 MT), as per the Association’s data. Brazil, the report said, produced 2.2 MT of crude steel in, down by 22.6%, while Turkey’s production was 2.3 MT, down by 25.8%.