Long abstract

About Statistics Publications & Documents Information by Country

This annual publication analyses the world steel market. It provides the most up-to-date figures and the short-term outlook showing developments in the world steel market by area, and the main characteristics, apparent consumption, trade and production, as well as trends in employment in the steel industry in OECD countries.

The crises that occurred, first in East Asia, then in Russia and Latin America, caused world steel demand to fall by 2.3% in 1998. Across the OECD zone as a whole, the vigorous growth in demand reported in North America and Europe in 1998 was not sufficient to curb the significant drop in steel consumption in Korea and Japan, and apparent steel consumption consequently fell by 0.6%. As a result of falling demand in the Asian countries, exports were diverted towards the growing markets in America and Europe. Many trade disputes arose, with producers in these two zones badly hit by the influx of steel and the fall in prices.

The disruption reported in 1998 and the major process of stock adjustment is expected to have a negative impact on apparent steel consumption in 1999, causing it to fall by nearly 2.9% world-wide. In the OECD area, the negative effects will be more serious and demand for steel is expected to fall by around 3.8%. Trade in steel products should begin to return to normal and a slight recovery is expected in the price of steel products, set to increase over the second half of the year. In 2000, world steel demand may be expected to recover by around 4%. For the OECD area as a whole, the increase could exceed 3%.