Posted on 01 Aug 2019
The June 2019 crude steel production data published by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) points to modest decline in production by countries in the South American region. The regional production dropped by more than 3% from June 2018. It totaled 3.563 million tonnes (Mt), when compared with the production of 3.676 Mt in June last year.
The top two producers- Brazil and Argentina reported marginal decline in output. The Brazilian production totaled 2.893 Mt, falling 3.1% over the previous year. The country had produced 2.913 Mt of crude steel in June 2018. The production by Argentina too dropped marginally by 0.4% year-on-year 414,000 tons to 412,000 tons. The third largest producer was Peru, whose output edged higher by 2.4% from 103,000 tons to 105,000 tons over the year.
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Venezuela reported the largest year-on-year decline in output. The country’s crude steel production nosedived 75% from 12,000 tons to around 3,000 tons. The other country to report significant year-on-year decline in production was Paraguay, which saw its output drop by nearly 36%. Colombia and Uruguay too reported sharp declines by 14.5% and 12.4% respectively. On the contrary, Ecuador’s output was up by 4.5%.
The cumulative regional production during the initial six-month period of 2019 totaled 21.491 Mt, down by 3% when compared with the production of 22.162 Mt from January to June in 2018. The leading crude steel producers during the first half of the current year were Brazil (17.243 Mt), Argentina (2.319 Mt) and Peru (608,000 tons).
