Belgium: The World Steel Association (WSA) forecasts that total global steel consumption in 2020 will be 1.65Bnt, down by 6.4% year-on-year from 1.77Bnt in 2019, due to the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak on steel-intensive industries. The WSA estimated that demand will decline by 17% in developed countries, with the steepest falls in Japan, South Korea and the US, and by 18% in India. China’s steel consumption is expected to rise by 1% due to increased infrastructure spending and a swift post-coronavirus recovery. Construction, a mostly seasonal sector, had already reached full productivity in April 2020.
The WSA expects steel demand to increase by 3.8% year-on-year in 2021 to 1.72Bnt globally. The sharpest recovery is expected to be in developing countries, where the WSA says that total demand will increase by 9.2%, following a fall of 11.6% in 2020.
