Steel consultancy MEPS said that the African steel industry would emerge from the global economic downturn with only limited damage.

Releasing its forecast for the year, MEPS said that mill output in 2009 was likely to decline by 2 million tonnes on the outturn last year to just above 15 million tonnes. This represented a reduction of 11.6%. By comparison, global steel production is expected to be 1.2 billion tonnes this year, a 9.5% reduction on the outturn in the previous 12 month period but still significantly above predictions by most pundits earlier in the year.

MEPS said that "This indicates that scrap-based electric melting will turn out to be the main casualty in the supply of steel over the year. The steel sectors in most industrialized nations have been badly hit by the economic crisis."

(Sourced from MEPS)