The supply demand imbalance between finished steel output and apparent consumption in the Middle East & North Africa region is expected to widen in the next few years.
According to Abu Dhabi based galvanized sheet producer Al Ghurair Iron & Steel, MENA’s apparent steel consumption will be stagnant this year due to political unrest in North Africa but should grow 8% in 2012. The Middle East has become a highly diversified market with 74% of the UAE and 89% of Bahrain’s GDP being generated by non oil sectors.
Mr Abu Bucker Husain COO of AGIS said that “There is a shortage of crude steel production against finished steel output in the region. The shortage of finished steel output against apparent steel consumption is even greater and this is expected to grow.”
Mr Husain said that in 2013, the regional shortage of crude steel and finished steel will be 7 MT and 14.2 MT respectively this shows that there is room for expansion in these areas.
He provided a bullish forecast for global steel consumption, which he says has an almost perfect correlation with global GDP expected to grow 6% to 2016. He estimated that this will mean 5% annual global steel demand growth up to that time. Global crude steel output could reach 1.5 billion tonnes this year.
He added that India’s apparent steel usage is expected to grow 13.3% in 2011 and 14.3% in 2012 driven by domestic industry growth and massive infrastructure spending.
( Source: www.steelguru.com )