France doubled its steel output m/m in November

French steelmakers doubled steel production in November 2023 compared to the previous month – to 1.58 million tons. This is evidenced by data from the WorldSteel Association.

Year-on-year, steel production in France increased by 91.5% in November 2023. Thus, the country’s steel production rose to its highest level in the last two years.

In January-November 2023, French steelmakers produced 9.68 million tons of steel, down 14.8% year-on-year.

The average monthly steel production in France for the first 11 months amounted to 880.45 thousand tons, while in the same period of 2022 the figure was 1.03 million tons (-14.79% y/y).

In 2022 France reduced steel production by 26% compared to 2021 – to 12.12 million tons. Thus, the country took 16th place in the global ranking of WorldSteel steel producers.

Overall, steel production in the European Union in November 2023 increased by 3.2% compared to November last year – up to 10.6 million tons. In January-November 2023, the EU produced 117.6 million tons of steel, down 7.8% y/y.

The lower steel production in January-November 2023 is due to the weak market conditions that have been observed since the fall of 2022. The European steel industry is facing high production costs at a time when demand for domestic steel products is weak amid a flood of cheaper imported products. In the autumn and winter, many companies limit their capacity to balance supply and demand and stabilize product prices.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2022 European steelmakers reduced steel production by 10.5% compared to 2021 – to 136.7 million tons. In general, global steel output last year fell by 4.3% y/y – to 1.831 billion tons.