Global steel demand will fall 5 percent next year as the financial crisis tips economies into recession, curbing purchases of the metal, a research firm said.
“New orders for steel in all regions of the world have had probably an unprecedented decline,” World Steel Dynamics managing partner Peter Marcus said in an interview in Kaohsiung yesterday. “We’ve gone from a chill to the deep freeze. Buyers have been on strike since July.”
The global economic downturn is prompting consumers to delay purchases of homes and cars, driving down steel prices and forcing mills including ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest, to consider production cuts. Prices of iron ore, may fall as much as 30 percent in the coming year and coking coal may drop as much as 50 percent, Marcus said.
“Global apparent steel demand will be down 3 percent in 2008 and is expected to fall 5 percent in 2009,” Marcus said while attending a steel conference. “The steel industry is facing at least two years of significant oversupply.”
World Steel Dynamics is a research firm based in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Global steel output and consumption may drop 5 percent next year, Zurich-based Research and Consulting Group AG said on Oct. 9.
Coking and thermal coal demand growth in China may slow to 5 percent next year, the China Coal Transport and Distribution Association said on Oct. 20.
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