RWI Konjunkturberichte

The iron and steel sector follows an upward trend. In nearly all regions crude steel production has been rising recently. Driving factors are a re-vitalization of world trade and a more vivid investment in fixed capital. Since these tendencies can be expected to continue, we forecast an increase of global crude steel production by 3 per cent each in this year and the next. Thus, capacity will rise somewhat. However, this will not be sufficient to solve the problem of global over-capacities. In Germany, crude trade production showed a positive tendency during the recent months. The reason behind is that the economic upswing has become more steel intensive. The trade balance of rolled steel continued to be negative but it improved somewhat recently. Because the economic outlook for Germany is positive, we forecast an increase of crude steel production by 1.5 per cent in this year and 0.9 percent in the next year. Nevertheless, employment in the iron and steel will be curbed, since cost pressure remains high.

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