ISSF: Global Stainless Steel Consumption Growth To Slow To 2.4% In 2019
The International Stainless Steel Federation predicts that global stainless steel consumption will slow this year and then recover in 2020.
Stainless steel consumption is projected to grow 2.4% this year, up from 4.8% in 2018, and then rise another 4.4% in 2020, the ISSF said after its fall meeting at this week in the Mexican city of Monterrey.
Projected growth rates vary by product, with cold rolled and hot rolled flat products up 2.9% and 2.7% this year, respectively, while long products are flat year over year.
In 2020, consumption is expected to grow in all product groups: cold-rolled flat products by 5%, hot-rolled flat products by 3.5%, long products by 3% and long products by 2.8%.
Strong growth in consumption in China in 2019 should have offset declines elsewhere, ISSF data showed, according to regional data.
Consumption growth in China is expected to reach 8.6% this year, up from 6.9% in 2018, while consumption is expected to decline in all other regions: minus 0.7% in Asia. excluding China (vs. 4.7% in 2018), minus 5.7% in Europe /Africa (vs. 1.2%) and minus 7.6% in the Americas (vs. 1.3 % last year).
Consumption growth in China is expected to slow to 7.2% in 2020, while other regions will return to modest growth of around 2% in Asia excluding China, 0.4% in Europe /Africa and 1 , 6% in the Americas.
According to the ISSF, stainless steel production rose marginally to 26.1 in the first half of 2019 from 25.6 million tonnes in the corresponding period last year.