Latin America will lead world steel demand growth in 2017 and 2018, according to the World Steel Association.

In its latest Short Range Outlook (SRO) worldsteel forecasts Central and South America finished steel products demand to grow by 3.5% year-on-year to 40.8 million tonnes in 2017. This follows a fall of -13.6% y-o-y in 2016 to 39.4mt.

The forecast for 2018 is even more optimistic, as steel demand is expected to increase by 4.7% y-o-y and reach 42.7mt.

Mexico is the only country from LatAm in the top ten steel using countries globally. According to the SRO, Mexico will retain its 9th position, as its steel demand will rise by 2.5% y-o-y and 1.4% y-o-y in 2017 and 2018 respectively. The country will use nearly 25.7mt of finished steel this year, forecasts worldsteel.

According to worldsteel`s SRO, global steel demand will increase by 1.3% to 1,535.2mt in 2017 and by 0.9% to 1,548.5mt in 2018 (see Kallanish 24 April).