STEEL NEWS

steel demand in 2019 will grow by 1.4%

According to forecasts of The World Steel Association (WSA), the global demand for steel this year will continue to grow, despite the complexity of the global economy. According to WSA CEO Edwin Basson in an interview with Global Platts, “global steel demand will continue to grow by at least 1.4% this year, given the slow world and the Chinese economy. This is a conservative view ... China can very easily increase steel consumption by 1-2%, and if this happens, it can lead to an increase in global demand for steel by 2%, rather than 1.4%. "

In addition, Mr. Basson added that “taking this as a starting point and comparing it with production figures, 1.64 billion tons of finished steel products produced last year will not be enough to meet the expected demand that we observe in 2019, so we hope that there will be production growth in 2019. "

World crude steel production reached 1808.6 million tons in 2018, an increase of 4.6% year on year. Last year, China's steel production reached 928.3 million tons, an increase of 6.6%, despite the fact that China stopped production on unregulated induction furnaces, the production of which was not taken into account in official statistics. China's share in world crude steel production increased from 50.3% in 2017 to 51.3% in 2018, while its demand as a whole remained stable.