Speaking at the 15th SteelOrbis "New Horizons in Steel Markets" annual conference being held virtually on December 1-3 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Yeoh Wee-Jin , secretary general of the South East Asia Iron and Steel Institute (SEAISI), shared information regarding ASEAN countries’ economies, steel consumption behavior, and how the pandemic has affected this region. Accordingly, steel consumption in the ASEAN region decreased during the first half of the year due to the pandemic, with long steel consumption by falling 9.8 percent and flat steel consumption down 14.5 percent year on year.
Mr. Yeoh stated that long steel consumption is usually catered to by domestic production, while flat steel consumption is more reliant on imports. He pointed out that Turkish steel producers should analyze the opportunities in the ASEAN market better, adding that sales from Turkey are usually for products which are also found domestically. He stressed that China is determining its sales strategy according to the needs of consumers and said that Turkey should also pay attention to this issue in order to be more active in this region. The SEAISI official said that in the January-September period this year Turkey mostly exported rebar, wire rod and small tonnages of hot rolled coil to the ASEAN region.
Commenting on new capacities due to come online, Mr. Yeoh said that the current steel capacity of 89.5 million mt in the ASEAN region will increase to 157.2 million mt, while demand only increases by five percent each year. He added that overcapacity will hamper steelmakers’ profitability.
For the coming year, SEAISI expects a 4.5-7 percent economic contraction in all ASEAN countries except for Vietnam, while in 2022 all countries are likely to see a recovery. Regarding steel consumption in the region, for the whole 2020 the expectation for 73.3-75.3 million mt, down 6.2-8.7 percent year on year, while there are no predictions for 2021 because of the uncertainties in the market.