The World Steel Association (Worldsteel) reports that crude steel production for the 63 countries reporting to the association reached 165.1-million tonnes in March – a 1.7% increase compared with March last year.
Notably, Africa improved its output by 8.4% year-on-year to 1.4-million tonnes, while Asia and Oceania increased its output as a region by 4.1% to 124.8-million tonnes.
African crude steel output is led by Egypt, Libya, South Africa and Tunisia.
The European Union recorded 5.6% lower crude steel output at 11.9-million tonnes in March, with North America also producing 2.6% less steel at 9.3-million tonnes.
Other European countries produced 3.5-million tonnes of crude steel, down 14.1% year-on-year. The Middle East also recorded 17.5% lower output, at 3.1-million tonnes.
Russia and other Commonwealth of Independent State countries produced 7.6-million tonnes in March, which was a 3% increase year-on-year.
South America reported a 7.6% decline in crude steel output of 3.5-million tonnes.
China remains the top steel producer globally, having produced 95.7-million tonnes of crude steel in March, which marked an almost 7% year-on-year improvement.
India also reported an increase of 2.7% in crude steel production in March, coming in at 11.4-million tonnes.
Japanese crude steel output fell by 5.9% to 7.5-million tonnes, while US output was down 2.1% to 6.7-million tonnes.
Russia is estimated to have produced 6.6-million tonnes, up 0.4% year-on-year.
Worldsteel members produce about 85% of global steel.