Steel production down in January-March

ISTANBUL

Türkiye’s crude steel production declined by 21.5 percent on an annual basis in the January-March period to 7.4 million tons, data from the World Steel Association have shown.

In March, the local industry’s crude steel output was 2.7 million tons, down 18.6 percent compared with the production in the same month of 2022. Türkiye was the ninth-largest crude steel producer in the world in March.

The country’s steel production was affected by the earthquakes which hit the southern provinces that are home to several steelmakers in February.

In February, crude steel production plunged by 29 percent from a year ago to 2.1 million tons.

Last week, İsdemir (İskenderun Demir Çelik), one of Türkiye’s largest steelmakers, said that it reached pre-earthquake levels in production.

Production at İsdemir, which was interrupted due to the February earthquakes, was restarted in a gradual and controlled manner, the company announced in a filing with Borsa Istanbul.

The World Steel data also showed that global crude steel production for the 63 countries reporting to the Association was 165.1 million tons in March 2023, a 1.7 percent increase compared to March 2022.

China, the largest producer of crude steel, produced 95.7 million tons in March, up 6.9 percent on March 2022, while India’s steel output grew 2.7 percent on an annual basis to 11.4 million tons.

Japan’s production fell by 5.9 percent from March 2022 to 7.5 million tons, while the U.S.’ crude steel output declined by 2.1 percent to 6.7 million tons.