Global steel output from the 64 countries reporting to worldsteel rose 6.4% on-year in April to 156.7 million tonnes. This was driven by a 12.7% surge in Chinese output to 85mt, according to the latest data from the World Steel Association.

Indian production increased 1.5% to 8.8mt but output in Japan fell -0.8% to 8.6mt. South Korean production rose 1.4% to 6mt. This meant overall Asian crude steel output grew 9.5% in April to 112.2mt.

EU28 output, meanwhile, declined -4.2% in April to 14.06mt as German output fell -8.7% to 3.36mt, Italian output declined -5.7% to 1.95mt, French output fell -8.1% to 1.29mt and Spanish production dropped -4.4% also to 1.29mt. Polish production rose an estimated 5.2% to 870,000t.

The US produced 7.4mt, up 7.3%, while Brazilian output was down -1.9% to 2.9mt.

Russian output is estimated to have fallen -8.3% to 5.6mt but Ukrainian production rose 12.6% to 1.94mt.

Turkish production, meanwhile, rose 2.6% in April to 3.04mt.

Bosnia recorded the fastest output growth in April, at 140% to 76,000t.

For antitrust reasons worldsteel no longer produces a monthly global capacity utilisation ratio. Information on capacity can be found on the OECD website, worldsteel says.