It is predicted that the global steel demand will increase by 4.5% to 1.855 billion tons this year

It is predicted that the global steel demand will continue to grow by 4.5% to 1855.4 million tons in 2021, following the growth of 0.1% in 2020. In 2022, the global steel demand will continue to grow by 2.2%, reaching 1896.4 million tons. The prediction is that, with the acceleration of global vaccination, the spread of COVID-19 variants will not be as destructive and chaotic as those of previous waves.

The previously suppressed demand release has strongly supported manufacturing activities, which is the main reason for the recovery of steel demand. The performance of developed economies exceeded our previous expectations and significantly exceeded that of developing economies, reflecting the high vaccination rate and the positive effects of government support measures. In developing economies, the recovery momentum has been interrupted by the recurrence of epidemics.

Although the recovery of manufacturing industry has shown more resilience than expected in the face of recent waves of epidemic, due to supply side constraints, the recovery in the second half of this year will slow down, and the strong recovery in 2021 will also be restrained. Nevertheless, due to the large backlog of orders, the reconstruction of inventory and the continuous promotion of vaccination in developing countries, we expect that steel demand will continue to recover in 2022.

The high inflation, the continuous slow vaccination rate in developing countries and the further deceleration of China's economic growth will affect the forecast results.