At the SteelOrbis 2012 Spring Conference & 66th IREPAS Meeting held in London on April 1-3, IREPAS chairman Ugur Dalbeler said the outlook for the steel industry is as good as the weather in London, where participants at the meeting enjoyed a sunny day on Monday.
Mr. Dalbeler told attendees that in the four years since the world economic crisis back in 2008 the steel industry had been accustomed to extreme volatility until the past four to five months when the market started to be characterized by stability. Mr. Dalbeler went on to state that the steel industry needs to remember how to manage stability.
The IREPAS chairman stated that activity in the euro area is slow, adding that it cannot get any slower. On the other hand, the outlook for the emerging markets is positive, he said.
Referring to the main challenge for the steel industry, Dalbeler pointed out that current annual world steel consumption is approximately 1.5 billion mt, whereas annual global steel production capacity stands at about 2 billion mt. He stated that this huge gap between consumption and production, or overcapacity in other words, was the main reason for the volatility of recent years, while it also places pressure on prices.