September 07, 2008

World steel market to remain strong till 2010- ITIS

According to analysts from Taiwan’s Industry & Technology Intelligence Services, a market research institution, after suffering a recession in 2001, the global steel market bottomed out and began recovering in the past two years, with prices being pushed upward by strong demand from China.

It predicted that due to continuous mergers and acquisitions among suppliers around the world, the steel industries performance outlook is rosy up to 2010.

According to an industrial report issued by Industry & Technology Intelligence Services, global demand for steel products will amount to 1.198 billion tonnes this year, up by 6.8% YoY and will further grow by 7% to 1.279 billion tonnes in 2008.

The report added that among countries with strong demand for steel this year and next are India, China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, Turkey, Brazil, and Mexico, with the first four all posting annual growths of over 10% in steel consumption.

Industry & Technology Intelligence Services also pointed out that in general, steel manufacturers tend to carry out acquisitions whenever a recession hits the industry. The resurgent market of the past few years has bucked this trend with surprising wave of mergers all over the world, in which quite a few large steel firms have acquired small and medium sized companies in the Asia Pacific, Central and Western Europe and Latin America.