Mubasher: The World Steel Association (worldsteel) said that global steel demand will remain solid this year and next, even amid uncertainty over global economic conditions.

Global steel demand is set to reach 1.775 billion tonnes this year, a 3.9% growth from last year, worldsteel said in its short range outlook (SRO) report.

Despite the high unpredictability of global economic outlook, global demand growth will come at 1.7% to 1.805 billion tonnes in the next year.

“The current SRO suggests that global steel demand will continue to grow in 2019, more than we expected in these challenging times, mainly due to China,” worldsteel economic committee chairman Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi said.

In China alone, steel demand is set to grow by 7.8% to 900.1 million tonnes this year, led by strong real estate sector, and will grow by 1% to next year.

“In the rest of the world, steel demand slowed in 2019 as uncertainty, trade tensions and geopolitical issues weighed on investment and trade,” Al Remeithi said.

For the rest of the world, demand is set to record 0.2% to 874.9 million tonnes this year, while it will rise by 2.5% next year, owing to 4.1% growth in the emerging and developing economies, excluding China.

Steel demand in the emerging economies, excluding China, will slow down to 0.4% this year, due to contractions in Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Latin America.

However, growth is set to recover to 4.1% next year owing to infrastructure investments, particularly in Asia.