The demand for steel in the world will grow 4.5% in 2021, projected the World Steel Association (Worldsteel).

With this, the demand for steel will reach 1,855.4 million tons (Mt), after a growth of 0.1% in 2020.

Previously and in particular, China achieved more than 1 billion tons of steel production in 2020, which represents an increase of 5.2%, compared to the previous year.

This increase was due to measures taken by the government to prevent the economy from suffering the impact of the pandemic.

In addition, another important issue for China’s increased production was the capacity replacement program.

Then in 2022 and also according to Worldsteel, demand will see a further increase of 2.2%, to 1,896.4 Mt.

The current forecast assumes that, with the advancement of vaccinations around the world, the spread of variants of the Covid-19 virus will be less harmful and disruptive than that seen in previous waves.

Steel demand

During the current year, strong manufacturing activity driven by stifled demand is the main contributor.

Developed economies have outperformed previous Worldsteel expectations by a greater margin than developing economies, reflecting the positive benefit of higher vaccination rates and government support measures.

In emerging economies, especially in Asia, the recovery momentum was interrupted by the resurgence of infections.

While the recovery in the manufacturing sector remained more resilient to new waves of infection than expected, supply-side constraints led to a stabilization of the recovery in the second half of the year and are preventing a stronger recovery in 2021 .

But with a large backlog of orders, combined with rebuilding inventories and further progress on vaccines in developing countries, demand for steel is expected to continue to rebound in 2022.

«Due to this vigorous recovery, global steel demand outside of China is expected to return earlier than expected to its pre-pandemic level this year,» said Al Remeithi, chairman of the Worldsteel Economics Committee.