The world iron and Steel Association recently released the short-term steel demand forecast results for 2021 and 2022. The world iron and Steel Association predicts that the global steel demand will continue to grow by 4.5% in 2021, reaching 1855.4 million tons, following an increase 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.
Commenting on the forecast results, alremeithi, chairman of the Market Research Committee of the world iron and Steel Association, said: "in 2021, the recovery of global steel demand exceeded expectations, leading us to raise the forecast results except China as a whole. Due to the strong recovery, except China, global steel demand will return to the level before the epidemic this year.
The previously suppressed demand release strongly supported manufacturing activities, which was 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, which reflected the high vaccination rate and the positive effect of government support measures. In developing economies, the recovery was delayed due to the repeated occurrence of epidemic diseases Momentum was interrupted.
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 the demand for steel will continue to increase in 2022 Continue recovery.
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.
