Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/73372
World Steel Production Report P roduction of crude steel for the 62 countries reporting to the World Steel Association in April was estimated to be 128.4 million tonnes, an increase of just 1.2 percent over April 2011. Th e total of the four months through April was 504 million tonnes, only 0.7 percent above the January to April total in 2011. Exclud- ing China, which accounted for 46 percent of world produc- tion in the fi rst four months of 2012, steel production actually fell in both April and the fi rst four months of the year. In the European Union 27, crude steel production fell by 5.2 percent in April to 14.9 million tonnes compared to April 2011, and by 4.2 percent in the four months to date to 59 million tonnes. Th irteen EU countries showed a drop in production in April, with 12 countries showing a drop in the fi rst four months of the year. Monthly production in Germany fell by 5.5 percent in April, and by 5 percent in the January to April period to 14.4 million tonnes. Italian crude steel production decreased by 3.2 percent in April, but was 3.4 percent up in the fi rst four months to 9.8 million tonnes. Steel production in France fell by just 1.8 percent in the month, but was 5.4 percent higher in the four months ending in April at 5.6 million tonnes. Spanish production, however, dropped by 14.3 per- cent in April, while the four- month total was down 14.9 56 IDA UNIVERSAL July-August 2012