The SteelOrbis Spring '12 Conference and 66th IREPAS Meeting held in London featured the presentation of Kim Marti Subirana of Celsa Group, who said that long steel product consumption kept growing last year, mainly supported by markets in Asia, the
Middle East and
North Africa (MENA), and
South America.
In 2011, the
rebar market saw stronger growth (10 percent) as compared to the average growth for long products (nine percent), thanks to construction activity in emerging and developing markets, reaching a volume of 285 million mt, up from 258 million mt in 2010, clearly taking a market share from steel sections.
Rebar consumption is consistently moving from advanced to developing countries, Mr. Marti remarked. In the meantime, renewed momentum in industrial production helped the
wire rod market to be the best performer in terms of growth in 2011, with a year-on-year growth rate of 11 percent to 188 million mt. Improvement of industrial production in different areas pushed total consumption of merchant bars up by five percent in 2011 over the previous year; however, the market drop in
Europe prevented stronger global growth for merchant bars. The signs in the market point to a continuation of the same trend, according to Mr. Marti.
Kim Marti stated that the long-term price trend for long steel products and rebars in particular is up. However, the strength of raw material prices means that margins remain very tight for
rebar producers. Mills located in the slowest growth areas are monitoring regional markets, in order to maintain levels of production in accordance with demand, he added.
As a consequence of generally improving demand, higher raw material costs and margin pressures, price levels will continue to move up, said Mr. Marti, though volatility and short-term change in price direction will persist in the trade, he added with a note of caution.