The World Steel Association (worldsteel) has released its April 2018 short range outlook (SRO) forecasting that global steel demand will reach 1,616.1 million tonnes in 2018, an increase of 1.8% on 2017. In 2019, it is forecasted that global steel demand will grow by 0.7% to reach 1,626.7mt.

Steel demand is benefitting from favourable global economic momentum, but facing risks from rising global trade tensions, chairman of the worldsteel economics committee T.V. Narendran says.

Despite this, the Chinese steel sector will return to a deceleration trend. “In 2017, the mild government stimulus measures provided some boost to construction activity, but investment continued to decelerate and steel demand showed only a moderate increase despite the stimulus,” worldsteel cautions. Chinese steel demand in 2018 is expected to stay flat. In 2019, it is expected to contract by -2% with a further slowdown in construction activity.

The economic outlook for developed economies remains robust with steel demand in the developed world expected to increase by 1.8% in 2018 and decelerate to 1.1% in 2019. Steel demand in emerging and developing economies (excluding China) is expected to increase by 4.9% and 4.5% in 2018 and 2019 respectively.