At the 84th Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Steel Committee meeting held in Paris on March 5-6, the Steel Committee stated that global steelmaking capacity has decreased slightly for the second consecutive year in 2017. The OECD has revised down its 2016 and 2017 figures for world steelmaking capacity to 2.29 and 2.27 billion mt, respectively, to incorporate closures and investments that were not taken into account previously.
“The reduction in global crude steelmaking capacity which mainly happened in absolute figures in Asia while proportionally significant in other constitutions has contributed to a slight narrowing of the gap between global capacity and production. However this modest adjustment still falls short of alleviating global excess capacity - demand would take more than 30 years to absorb the current level of excess capacity,” the OECD Steel Committee noted. New investment projects continue to take place around the world and global steelmaking capacity could increase by two percent between 2018 and 2020 in the absence of any further closures.
According to the OECD Steel Committee, the contraction of global steel trade, both in terms of exports and imports, observed in 2017 also reflects the impact of tariff and non-tariff measures, which continue to put significant constraints on steel trade.