Argentina's steel output in August grew by a wide margin from July but was still down sharply on the year as a number of factories shuttered operations to conduct maintenance.

August raw steel output totaled 379,900 metric tons, a 10.4% gain on the month and 22.4% decline on the year, industry trade group Acero reported Friday.

"The fall on the year is explained by the maintenance stoppage at some plants started in July which still hadn't come back into operation," Acero said in its monthly report.

Despite the drop in output, domestic supply remained steady as companies dipped into stocks, Acero said. Raw iron output in August totaled 118,100 tons, down 44.2% on the month and down 64.5% on the year.

Production of hot-rolled products totaled 400,500 tons, down 19.8% on both the month and year, Acero said. Cold-rolled output fell 5.9% on the month but was up 5.5% on the year at 122,900 tons.