In his address at the 51st annual meeting of worldsteel (World Steel Association) held in Brussels on October 16-17, John. J. Ferriola, chairman of worldsteel and also chairman, CEO and president of US steelmaker Nucor Corporation, started by quoting an old Chinese saying, “May you live in interesting times”, stating that his year as chairman of worldsteel had been an interesting but also a challenging time for the global steel industry. The EU seemed to be coming to terms with Brexit, though it was still in unchartered waters, with this being the first time ever that any country had applied to leave the EU. Turning to the US, he said that there had been a dramatic policy shift in line with the vision of President Trump, adding that this also represented unchartered waters for the markets.
The worldsteel chairman pointed out that historically a high percentage of steel produced has been traded internationally and accordingly overcapacity easily exerts a distorting impact on the international markets. He stated that there is a strong international consensus that more needs to be done to tackle overcapacity, while he stressed that a commitment is also needed from all governments to “get out of the industry”, referring to state support for domestic industry.
Referring to the challenges facing the steel industry in the future, Mr. Ferriola said that the industry had entered a phase of slower demand growth, with growth in every market having slowed down. With economic growth not expected to rise, steelmakers need to plan to survive in a slow-growth environment. The use of new technologies also brings new challenges, he said, with digitalization now gradually becoming more widespread. At the same time, he affirmed that a highly trained workforce would be essential to the industry in the future. He pointed out that in this respect the ageing of the workforces in developed countries was already becoming a problem, including in China. Remarking on the misperception that steel manufacturing requires a low-skilled workforce, he stressed that the steel industry will have to be creative to recruit the best and the most talented of tomorrow’s workforce.
Ferriola stated that another challenge to steel is posed by competition from alternative materials, especially from aluminum in the automotive sector. On the other hand, he indicated that the continuous recycling of steel gives it far lower lifetime emissions compared to aluminum - up to five times lower compared to lifetime emissions for aluminum.
Concluding, Mr. Ferriola stated that worldsteel was a tremendous advocate for the steel industry, while he urged steelmakers to continue to innovate and fight for the success of the steel industry around the world.