Arab Steel reported that Mr Mohamed laid Lachger general secretary of Arab Iron & Steel Union in the annual conference recently held in Marrakesh of Morocco expected that the Arab steel industry will recover in 2010.
This year shall witness the launch of several new projects in steel industry in addition to an expected output of crude steel production to reach 21 million tonne per year in case the mills work with full capacity, referring also to a depression in crude steelmaking amounting to nearly one million tons in 2009 as compared to 2008 on the level of Arab steelmaking.
This came in the speech of Mr Mohamed Laid Lachgar at the beginning of the conference, warning of dumping risks on the process of recovery that steel industry is expected to witness during the current year.
He said that "Dumping of Arab markets by countries which consider these markets as their traditional export markets have certainly affected the share of Arab steel producers in their own markets. Many Arab markets suffer from price dumping along with quantity dumping which reached nearly 50% of the local steel consumption in some Arab countries, resulting in damages for steel mills, forcing them to sell sometimes at less than the actual cost just to stay on the market add to that the growing stockpiles in steel mills.
He has also called in his address to make larger Arab JV instead of the current small and scattering iron & steel industries which can be affected by any economic crisis. He also pointed out the need to develop iron and steel consuming industries in line with the future expansions in steel output.