Posted on 01/02/2012 in category Ferrous
BIR World Mirror on Ferrous Metals - February 2012
PRESIDENT'S OPENING REMARKS
by Christian Rubach, TSR Recycling
The freshly-released Worldsteel figures for 2011 show a world crude steel production record of 1.527bn tonnes, which is equivalent to an increase of 6.8% when compared to 2010.
All major steel-producing countries apart from Japan and Spain showed growth last year. The upturn in Asia amounted to 7.8% such that the continent accounted for 64.7% of global steel production. Indeed, China alone now produces 45.5% of the world’s crude steel!
With this dominant role, China’s economy will be the key factor also for our industry. Although there are signs of a cooling-down of the Chinese economy, more and more economists forecast a soft landing for China in 2012. The “cooled down” growth rate is now expected to be somewhere around “only” 8% - which in other regions of the world would be interpreted as a fantastic boom.
Crude steel production worldwide is predicted to grow even further - but at moderate rates and with some weaker regions, such as Europe. Nevertheless, scrap demand will be good and ferrous scrap will remain a potentially scarce raw material...