Ukraine Increases Steel Smelting By 24% In February

Ukrainian steel plants increased steel production by 24.1% to 1.969 million tons in February this year, compared with February 2015, thus retaining its 10th place in the ranking of the world's 66 largest steel producing countries compiled by the World Steel Association (Worldsteel), the Interfax Ukraine news agency reports.

Four of the countries in the top ten – the United States, South Korea, Turkey, and Ukraine – reported increases in steel production in February.

The world’s top ten largest producers of steel in February were China (58.515 million tons, a 4% reduction), Japan (8.355 million tons, a 1% reduction), India (6.940 million tons, a 3.6% reduction), United States (6.366 million tons, a 2.9% increase), Russia (5.666 million tons, a 2.7% reduction), South Korea (5.3 million tons, a 5% increase), Germany (3.362 million tons, a 4.3% reduction), Turkey (2,370 million tons, a 4% increase), Brazil (2.434 million tons, a 8.7% reduction), and Ukraine (1.969 million tons, a 24.1% increase).

In total, the 66 countries produced 120.412 million tons of steel in February this year, which is 3.3% less than they produced in February 2015.

In the period of January-February this year, the top ten largest producers of steel were China (121.070 million tons, a 5.7% reduction), Japan (17.132 million tons, a 1.9% reduction), India (14.358 million tons, a 2.4% reduction), United States (12.822 million tons, a 4.6% reduction), Russia (11.224 million tons, a 6.7% reduction), South Korea (10.967 million tons, a 0.1% reduction), Germany (6.966 million tons, a 3.1% reduction), Turkey (4.968 million tons, a 2.3% increase), Brazil (4.885 million tons, a 13.7% reduction), and Ukraine (3.907 million tons, a 13% increase).

In total, in the period of January-February this year, the 66 countries produced 247.285 million tons of steel, which is 5.2% less than they produced in the corresponding period of 2015.

Worldsteel also ranked Ukraine as the world’s tenth largest steel producer in 2015 with 22.933 million tons (a 15.6% reduction compared with 2014).