Ukraine retains 10th position in world steel producers ranking

Thursday, July 21, 2016 - 12:20 (EEST) Section: Latest news

Ukraine lowered its steel production in June 2016 by 8.6% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 1.830 million tonnes, remaining at 10th position in the list of the world`s major steel producers, according to the World Steel Association.
Steel output in Ukraine in January-June 2016 increased by 10.3% y-o-y to 12.413 million tonnes, according to the report.
Based on last month`s results, China was the world`s largest crude steel producer, producing 69.5 million tonnes of crude steel, an increase of 1.7% compared with June 2015.
Elsewhere in Asia, Japan produced 8.8 million tonnes of crude steel in June 2016, an increase of 2.7% compared with June 2015. South Korea`s crude steel production was 5.5 million tonnes in June 2016, down by 6.7% compared with June 2015.
In the European Union, Germany produced 3.7 million tonnes of crude steel in June 2016, a decrease of 2.1% compared with June 2015.
Turkey`s crude steel production for June 2016 was 2.9 million tonnes, up by 2.0% compared with the same month last year.
In June 2016, Russia produced 5.8 million tonnes of crude steel, up by 2.5% from June 2015.
The United States produced 6.8 million tonnes of crude steel in June 2016, a decrease of 0.1% compared with the same period last year.
Brazil`s crude steel production for June 2016 was 2.5 million tonnes, down by 8.5% from June 2015.
World crude steel production for the 66 countries reporting to the World Steel Association was 136 million tonnes in June 2016, the same quantity as June 2015, the report said.
”The crude steel capacity utilization ratio of the 66 countries in June 2016 was 69.4%. This is 3.3 percentage points lower than June 2015. Compared with May 2016, it is two percentage points lower,” the World Steel Association said. 
UNIAN memo. In 2013, Ukraine ranked seventh in the World Steel Association`s ranking, having produced 30.4 million tonnes of crude steel. In 2014, Ukraine dropped to 10th position with a crude steel output of 27.2 million tonnes.
Steel production in Ukraine has been affected by a number of factors since 2014. Military operations in Donbas (Ukraine`s east), where most of the country`s steel production capacities are located, is an important factor. Secondly, the decline in prices of metallurgical inputs and finished products in global commodity markets has contributed to the steel producers` dwindling revenues and increased competition in the markets. Despite these factors, Ukraine has, however, retained its position in the list of the world`s top 10 major steel producers.