Raw steel production in the 65 countries reporting to the World Steel Association was 136.8 million mt in July, 1.7% more than the 134.5 million mt in the same month last year.
This took the total for the first seven months of 2014 to 959.7 million mt, up 2.4% on the same 2013 period.
But July's daily average production of 4.41 million mt was down 4% from June's 4.59 million mt/day.
And the industry's capacity-utilization rate fell to 75.4%, down nearly three percentage points from June and its lowest this year.
China's July production of 68.3 million mt was up just 1.5% on the same month last year.
Japan's production was level with July last year, while Korean output grew 6.2%. There were also increases in Taiwan and India.
Production in the European Union fell 2% year-on-year to 13.3 million mt, its lowest monthly level this year.
Although output increased in Germany (up 1.5%), France (up 1.6%) and Spain (up 5.9%), it fell in Italy (down 3.6%), the UK (down 4.4%) and Poland (down 13.1%).
Turkey's production rose 1%.
In the CIS, total production rose by 2.3% on the year, as an 11.7% fall in Ukraine was outweighed by increases in Russia and Kazakhstan. There is no steel production in Crimea which was annexed from Ukraine by Russia in March.
North American July production was 2% higher, with gains in the US and Canada.
In South America, increased production in Brazil and Argentina helped the region's total rise 1.1% on the year.
Africa produced 21% more raw steel in July, mostly due to a 44% jump in Egypt which overtook South Africa to become the continent's largest producer last month.
Middle Eastern output rose 8.3% with on-year rises in Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
