According to data from the Steel and Iron Producers Association (DÇÜD), Turkey, the world’s 10th biggest crude steel producer, enjoyed a year-on-year increase of 24.7 percent in its output in December due to the base effect, though for the whole year, production was down by 5.6 percent to 25.3 million, accounting for about 2.1 percent of global crude steel output.
DÇÜD General Secretary Veysel Yayan said in a written statement that Turkey’s crude steel exports fell from $20.5 billion in 2008 to around $12 billion last year due to contracting demand around the world, criticizing the government for not extending any support to the sector.
Annual crude steel output declined by 8.1 percent globally to 1.2 billion tons between 2008 and 2009. The decline in global crude steel output was 22.8 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period of 2008, and this figure decreased steadily in following quarters. The first half of the year saw crude steel output decrease by 21.3 percent year on year, but better third quarter figures narrowed this gap to 16.4 percent for the first three quarters of the year, while the base effect seen in the last quarter meant the overall drop in crude steel production totaled 8.1 percent for 2009 compared to 2008.
Starting to recover from the global financial crisis along with base effect, the last month of 2009 saw all of the 10 top steel and iron producers posting increases in their production over the same month of the previous year. During this month, Russia enjoyed the greatest increase, with a rise of 66 percent, and followed by the US, where output was up by 48 percent.
Only five out of 50 iron and steel producing countries enjoyed a rise in their outputs in 2009 over the previous year, while production of two others remained unchanged. China kept its place at No. 1 on the list of crude steel production last year, with a share of 47.4 percent in global production. Despite the crisis, output rose by 13.5 percent in China last year from 2008 to 2009, totaling 567.84 million. During the same period, the second biggest crude steel producing country, Japan, suffered a fall of 26.3 percent, while production was down by 12.5 percent in Russia and 36.4 percent in the US.
According to MEPS, a leading UK-based steel market information supplier, iron and steel output will rise by 22 percent to 1.35 billion tons this year. Production of crude steel will increase by 37 percent to $1.64 billion, MEPS predicted.
