Worldsteel has forecast that global steel demand will rise by 0.2 percent in the current year to 1.50 billion metric tons, while predicting a further rise of 0.5 percent to 1.51 billion metric tons in 2017, both year on year. The announcement was made at the 50th annual worldsteel meeting in Dubai on October 11, at a meeting on the short-range outlook for global steel demand chaired by T. V. Narendran, managing director of Indian steel producer Tata Steel and chairman of the worldsteel economics committee. These predictions compare very favorably to the three percent year-on-year decline to 1.49 billion metric tons recorded in world steel demand in 2015.
Global steel demand excluding China is predicted to rise by 1.1 percent to 835.7 million metric tons in 2016 and to expand by a higher rate of 2.6 percent in 2017 to 857.3 million metric tons. As regards China on the other hand, its steel demand is forecast to decline by one percent in 2016 to 665.6 million metric tons and to decrease further by two percent to 652.3 million metric tons in 2017, both year on year. The one percent decrease for 2016 marks a revision from worldsteel’s prediction in April this year of a decrease of four percent in Chinese steel demand for the current year.
In terms of other major regions, steel demand in the EU is predicted to grow by 0.8 percent in the current year to 154.8 million metric tons and to rise by 1.4 percent in 2017 to 156.9 million metric tons. The NAFTA region is expected to see a 0.1 percent fall in steel demand this year to 133.6 million metric tons but to record a rise of 2.9 percent in demand in 2017 to 137.4 million metric tons. As for the CIS, its demand for steel will drop by 1.6 percent to 49.6 million metric tons in the current year but will rise by 2.1 percent in 2017 to 50.7 million metric tons, year on year. Steel demand in the Middle East is forecast to increase by 0.3 percent to 53.0 million metric tons in 2016 and to rise by 0.1 percent to 53.1 million metric tons in 2017.