worldsteel Forecasts 3.9% Surge in Global Steel Demand

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster):  The World Steel Association (worldsteel) today released its Short Range Outlook (SRO) for 2019 and 2019. It forecasts 3.9% growth to global steel demand in 2019, followed by another 1.7% growth in 2020. The demand is likely to total 1,775.0 Mt and 1,805.7 Mt in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

As per forecast, the Chinese steel demand is expected to grow by 7.8% during the current year to total 900.1 Mt, largely driven by real estate investment. The rest of the world is expected to record marginal demand growth by 0.2% to 874.9 Mt. The steel demand in China will see lesser growth of 1% in 2020, whereas the rest of the world is expected to grow by 2.5%. The emerging and developing economies excluding China will grow by 4.1%, worldsteel said.

Auto industry witnessed sharp contraction in activities. The global automotive production is expected to contract in 2019. The ongoing recession is likely to hit major automotive markets including Germany, Turkey, China and South Korea. However, the construction sector managed to maintain positive momentum, despite marginal slowdown.

Mr Al Remeithi, Chairman of the worldsteel Economics Committee said that continued growth in global steel demand in 2019 in the midst of challenging market conditions, as suggested by the current SRO, is mainly due to China. The uncertainties on account of trade tensions coupled with geopolitical crises impacted steel demand growth in the rest of the world.