China-Singapore Jingwei Client, April 15th. According to the official website of the World Steel Association, the World Steel Association released the latest version of the short-term (2021-2022) steel demand forecast report on the 15th. The report shows that global steel demand will decline in 2020. After 0.2%, it will increase by 5.8% in 2021, reaching 1.874 billion tons. In 2022, global steel demand will continue to grow by 2.7%, reaching 1.925 billion tons.
The report believes that the ongoing second or third wave of the epidemic will flatten out in the second quarter of this year. With the steady progress of vaccination, economic activities in major steel-consuming countries will gradually return to normal.
Al Remeithi, Chairman of the World Steel Association’s Market Research Committee, commented on the results of this forecast: “Although the new crown pneumonia epidemic has brought catastrophic effects on people’s lives and lives, the global steel industry is still lucky. By the end of 2020 Global steel demand has only contracted slightly. This is mainly due to China’s surprisingly strong recovery, which has promoted China’s steel demand growth as high as 9.1%, while in other countries in the world, steel demand has shrunk by 10.0%. In the next few years, advanced economies The steel demand in developing economies will recover steadily. The supporting factors are the suppressed steel demand and the government’s economic recovery plan. However, for some of the most developed economies, it must return to the level before the epidemic. It will take several years.
Speaking of the construction industry in the steel industry, the report said that due to the epidemic, different development trends will appear in various fields of the construction industry. With the increase of telecommuting and e-commerce, as well as the decrease of business trips, people’s demand for commercial buildings and travel facilities will continue to decline. At the same time, people’s demand for e-commerce logistics facilities has grown, and this demand will develop into a growing sector. The importance of infrastructure projects has increased, and sometimes they have become the only means for many countries to recover their economies. In emerging economies, infrastructure projects will continue to constitute a strong driving factor. In advanced economies, green recovery plan projects and infrastructure renovation projects will drive demand for the construction industry. It is estimated that by 2022, the global construction industry will return to the level of 2019.
The report also said that, in the steel industry, the decline in the automotive industry was the most significant on a global scale, and the automotive industry is expected to experience a strong recovery in 2021. The global auto industry is expected to return to the level of 2019 in 2022. Although the global machinery industry has been hit by the decline in investment in 2020, the decline is much lower than in 2009. The machinery industry is expected to recover quickly. In addition, there is another important factor that will also affect the machinery industry, that is, the acceleration of digitalization and automation. Investment in this area will promote the growth of the machinery industry. Furthermore, green projects and investment plans in the field of renewable energy will also become another growth area for the machinery industry. (Source: Sino-Singapore Jingwei)