Metal Bulletin reported,Crude steel output in the 66 counties reporting to the World Steel Assn (worldsteel) rose 25.5% to 48.7 million tonnes in January as capacity utilisation grew slightly.

Capacity utilisation increased to 72.9%, up from 71.9% in December last year and 61.3% in January 2009. World steel output fell to a low of 58.1% of installed capacity in December 2008, worldsteel said.

China again accounted for the largest share of world production at 48.7 million tonnes, 18.2% more than the country produced in the same month a year earlier.

Japanese output rose 36.8% to 7.7 million tonnes, while South Korean output rose 32.4% year-on-year to 4.5 million tonnes.

In the USA, crude steel production gained 48.8% year-on-year to 6.1 million tonnes, while Russian raw steel output was 5.2 million tonnes, 33% more than the corresponding period a year earlier.

In Europe, German crude steel output was 27.7% higher year-on-year at 3.4 million tonnes, while Spanish output soared 51.1% to 1.4 million tonnes.

French output rose 32.3% year-on-year to 1.1 million tonnes.

Meanwhile, Turkish crude steel production remained largely unchanged, rising only 2% compared with January 2009 to 2.1 million tonnes.

Crude steel production in Australia gained 38.6% year-on-year to 600,000 tonnes.

Crude steel production in Australia gained 38.6% year-on-year to 600,000 tonnes.