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German steel output drops

German steel production dropped by half in the year to March, the sharpest decline since the country's reunification nearly two decades ago, according to government figures released yesterday.

The country's steelmakers produced 1.28 million tons of pig iron and 2.1 million tons of raw steel last month, the Federal Statistical Office said. Those figures were 50.3 percent and 49.8 percent below March 2008 levels.