The situation of steel consumption industry is relatively optimistic

In 2021, despite the contraction of China's construction activities, the construction activities in the world continued to recover from the blockade of the COVID-19 epidemic, and the steel demand increased by 3.4% year-on-year. In many countries and regions around the world, the driving force of this recovery comes from infrastructure investment. The World Steel Association believes that in the next few years, infrastructure investment and energy transformation investment are likely to continue to promote the growth of steel demand in the construction industry. However, the construction industry also faces some resistance from high costs and interest rates.

In addition, in the second half of 2021, the supply chain of the automobile industry encountered bottlenecks, which hindered the recovery momentum of steel demand. The recovery situation of the global automobile industry in 2021 was disappointing. Despite the sharp decline in global automobile production, the steel demand in the electric vehicle market increased rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the global sales volume of electric vehicles reached 6.6 million, almost twice that of 2020. The proportion of electric vehicles in total vehicle sales increased from 2.49% in 2019 to 8.57% in 2021.