The production stoppages and the ongoing economic decline halved the production of crude steel in Finland in the first quarter of the current year.
According to the information released by the World Steel Association (formerly known as the International Iron and Steel Institute IISI) on Tuesday, Finland’s crude steel production in the first quarter of 2009 showed a decrease of nearly 52 % compared with the same period in 2008.
Finland produced 576,000 tonnes of crude steel in the first quarter of 2009, while the corresponding figure for the same period last year was close to 1.2 million tonnes.
The world production of crude steel in the first quarter of the current year was 263.7 million tonnes, a decline of 23 % from the corresponding period in 2008.
The crude steel production of China, the largest steel producer in the world, showed a marginal increase of 1.4 % during the first three months of the year.
The crude steel production of the 27 European Union member-states was down by 44 %, amounting to just below 54 million tonnes in the early months of 2009.
Japan’s crude steel production dropped at the same pace as that in Europe, while in the United States the production was down by 53 % compared with the same period in 2008.
