Global steel output rebounds in July

Global crude steel production rose in July, reversing direction after a slight fall in June, World Steel Association (Worldsteel) reported, with the sector anticipating a pick-up in demand following the end of the slow summer period.

Worldwide output rose by 2% to 130 million tonnes in July, compared to the same month a year earlier, according Worldsteel.

The bulk of the increase was registered in top producer China, where output for July rose 4.2% year-on-year to 61.7 million tonnes.

Global output showed 0.7% growth in May and a 0.1% drop in June as the global economic slowdown put pressure on the outlook for demand and dragged prices lower.

Worldsteel forecast in April that global steel consumption growth was expected to slow in 2012, hit by weaker economic growth in top consumer China and uncertainties about the debt crisis in the euro zone.

In the worlds second – largest steelmaker Japan, output rose 1.2% in July compared with the same period a year ago, to 9.3 million tonnes while in the United States production rose by 0.9% year-onyear to 7.4 million tonnes.