Posted on 02 Feb 2017
The monthly statistics released by the World Steel Association indicate that blast furnace iron production by world countries increased marginally by 1.41% during December last year. The production totaled 95.864 million tonnes (Mt) during the month, as compared with the production of 94.530 Mt during November 2016. The cumulative BFI output during the entire year 2016 totaled 1.159 billion tonnes. It must be noted that the above information is based on the output recorded by 39 countries, which accounted for 99% of the world BFI production during the entire year 2015.
The BFI output by the Asian region totaled 74.850 Mt during the month, accounting for nearly 78.0% of the total world output. The output during the month increased when matched with the output of 74.040 Mt during November ’16. The leading Asian BFI producers during December ’16 were China (57.470 Mt), Japan (6.560 Mt), India (5.562 Mt) and South Korea (3.989 Mt). The cumulative production by Asian region totaled 905.188 Mt during the whole year 2016.
The 28 countries of the European Union recorded an output of 7.360 Mt during December 2016, up considerably when matched with the output of 7.190 Mt output reported during the prior month. The top producers of the region were Germany (2.015 Mt), France (900,000 tonnes), Italy (523,000 tonnes), Austria (503,000 tonnes), the Netherlands (460,000 tonnes) and the UK (435,000 tonnes). The cumulative yearly BFI production by the EU-28 countries totaled 91.083 Mt. The Other Europe region including countries such as Boznia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Turkey reported monthly and cumulative output of 1.069 Mt and 12.236 Mt respectively.
The CIS region reported BFI production totaling 6.800 Mt during the month. The output jumped higher when matched with the previous month output of 6.524 Mt. The leading BFI producer during the month was Russia with 4.500 Mt. The other key producers were Ukraine (1.980 Mt) and Kazakhstan (320,000 tonnes). The yearly output by the CIS region totaled 79.150 Mt.
The North American BFI output increased marginally from 2.562 Mt in November ’16 to 2.710 Mt in December ’16. The output by the US totaled 1.780 Mt, constituting nearly 66% of the total production by the region. The US production has surged higher considerably by nearly 7% from 1.664 Mt in November to 1.780 Mt in December. The other key BFI producing nations were Canada (505,000 tonnes) and Mexico (425,000 tonnes). The regional output during the full year 2016 totaled 32.974 Mt. The cumulative output by the US during the year 2016 totaled 22.261 Mt. The output by Canada and Mexico totaled 6.207 Mt and 4.506 Mt respectively.
Meantime, the blast furnace iron production by South America reduced marginally over the previous month to total 2.197 Mt in Dec ‘16. Among the countries in the region, Brazil produced 1.963 Mt during the month. The output by Brazil had totaled 2.085 Mt during the month prior to this. The other key BFI producers during the month were Argentina (161,000 tonnes), Chile (50,000 tonnes), Colombia (20,000 tonnes) and Paraguay (3,000 tonnes). The South American output during the entire year 2016 totaled 27.826 Mt.
Oceania region’s BFI production remained more or less flat during December, registering marginal increased from Nov ’16 levels. The production totaled 383,000 tonnes, up marginally when compared with the production of 372,000 tonnes during November last year. The output by Australia recorded marginal increase from 313,000 tonnes in November to 318,000 tonnes in December. On the other hand, New Zealand’s output surged higher from 59,000 tonnes to 65,000 tonnes over the previous month. The cumulative output during the full year 2016 by the region totaled 4.313 Mt.
