The recovery of steel demand in developing economies (excluding China) faces more challenges as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic persists and inflation, and as a result, many emerging economies enter a tightening monetary cycle.
Steel demand in developing economies (excluding China) increased by 10.7% in 2021 after falling by 7.7% in 2020, a figure slightly higher than the World Steel Association forecast.
In 2022 and 2023, developing economies (excluding China) will continue to face challenges posed by the deteriorating external environment, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and the tightening of monetary policy in the United States, which will lead to developing economies (excluding China) steel Demand has grown at a low speed in the past two years, and is expected to grow by 0.5% and 4.5% respectively.
The situation of the steel consumption industry is relatively optimistic. Globally, construction activity continues to recover from the Covid-19 lockdown in 2021, with steel demand up 3.4% year-on-year, despite a contraction in construction activity in China. In many countries and regions around the world, the impetus for this recovery comes from infrastructure investment. The World Steel Association believes that in the next few years, infrastructure investment and energy transition investment are likely to continue to drive the growth of steel demand in the construction industry.
However, the construction industry is also facing some headwinds from high costs and interest rates. In addition, in the second half of 2021, bottlenecks in the automotive industry supply chain hindered the recovery of steel demand, and the recovery of the global automotive industry in 2021 was disappointing.
Steel demand in the electric vehicle market has seen rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite a slump in global auto production. In 2021, global electric vehicle sales will reach 6.6 million units, almost double the number in 2020. The share of electric vehicles in total vehicle sales will increase from 2.49% in 2019 to 8.57% in 2021.
