Sep 04, 2023
Swedish steel production dips in first half

Crude steel production of Swedish mills in the first six months of the year totalled 2.305 million tonnes, 4.5% less than in the first half of 2022, according to national steel association Jernkontoret.

While the monthly production gap widened somewhat in June with 365,000 tonnes and a y-on-y spread of 5.4%, the gap was slightly less pronounced in July with minus 3.4% and 314,000 tonnes.

Still, Jernkonteret emphasises the declining trend of steel production compared with 2022. “July is a month when production often drops,” says Mathias Ternell, trade policy director at Jernkontoret. However, the overall trend of a lower rate of crude steel production “has continued during the summer, confirmed by the fact that July 2023 production is lower than in July 2022,” he says.

The production statistics are based on data from eleven steel producers in Sweden, Kallanish learns from the association. In the full year 2022, crude steel production was already 5.9% lower than in 2021, totalling 4.4m tonnes.

Deliveries of steel finished products in 2022 amounted to 3.2 million tonnes. The majority of the deliveries were exported. About two-thirds of the total crude steel production in Sweden is ore-based, and more than half of the production is high-grade alloy steels, while most plain steel grades are imported, Jernkontoret notes.

Christian Koehl Germany

Source: Eurometal