Posted on 06 Sep 2017
The latest production statistics released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) indicates marginal jump in blast furnace iron (BFI) output during the month of July 2017. The output increased by nearly 2%, rising from 99.595 million tonnes (Mt) in June to 101.589 Mt in July this year. Based on output figures from 39 countries that accounted for 99% of the world blast furnace iron production in 2015, the cumulative output during the initial six-month period of the year totaled 698.12 Mt.
Asian region emerged as the leading producer of blast furnace iron during the month. The region’s production totaled 79.462 Mt, accounting for over 78% of the world production. The monthly production recorded slight increase when matched with 78.333 Mt production recorded during the month before that. Among countries in the Asian region, China continued to remain as the leading BFI producer. The output by the country totaled 62.074 Mt, slightly higher when compared with the previous month output of 61.678 Mt. The other key producers were Japan (6.533 Mt), India (5.377 Mt), South Korea (4.228 Mt) and Taiwan (1.250 Mt).
The North American BFI output totaled 2.900 Mt, increasing marginally from 2.746 Mt during the prior month. The US output increased slightly to total 1.930 Mt. Canada’s production stood at 585,000 tonnes, followed by Mexico with 385,000 tonnes. The cumulative BFI output by the North American countries during the initial seven-month period of the current year totaled 19.651 Mt.
The EU-28 region recorded an output of 7.610 Mt during July this year, remaining more or less stable when matched with the output of 7.676 Mt output reported during the prior month. The leading producers of the region were Germany (2.230 Mt), France (740,000 tonnes), Austria (539,000 tonnes), the Netherlands (527,000 tonnes), the UK (455,000 tonnes), and Italy (450,000 tonnes). The cumulative BFI production by the EU-28 countries during Jan-July ’17 totaled 54.590 Mt.
South America recorded marginal increase in blast furnace iron output in July 2017. The production by the region totaled 2.585 Mt during the month. Brazil accounted for bulk of the production by the region. Brazil’s BFI output totaled 2.327 Mt, accounting for nearly 90% of the regional production during the month. The other major BFI producers were Argentina (180,000 tonnes), Chile (60,000 tonnes) and Colombia (15,000 tonnes).
The CIS region reported total output of 7.055 Mt in July. Russia, with a production of 4.915 Mt was the leading producer. The combined output by the region during Jan-July ’17 totaled 48.811 Mt. The BFI monthly output by the Oceania region totaled 378,000 tonnes, whereas the cumulative seven-month output totaled 2.567 Mt.
