Global apparent steel consumption in August was down 4.5% month-on-month but up 1.3% year-on-year at 146.4 million tonnes, according to a Kallanish analysis. So far this year, Europe and Southeast Asia have been the main drag on growth. While China has stalled, India, Turkey, and the Middle East have seen the strongest growth.
Over January-August this year, global apparent steel consumption fell just 0.4% on-year to 1.206 billion tonnes. Chinese apparent demand dropped 0.4% to 622.8mt.
Europe has been the largest single drag on global growth, with apparent demand in the EU27 falling 11.7% to 91.2mt year-to-date. The UK also saw a 7% decline to 5.1mt.
India was meanwhile by far the biggest growth driver. Over January-August, apparent steel demand was up 16.4% at 86mt.
Turkey and the Middle East meanwhile also both saw significant increases in demand. Turkish apparent steel demand was up 17.8% to 25.7mt over the year to date, Kallanish calculates. Middle Eastern demand meanwhile increased 5.8% to 32.2mt.
Sub-Saharan Africa also saw an 8.6% increase y-o-y to 10.9mt.
In the Americas, North and Central America saw demand inch 0.7% higher to 94.5mt, while South America saw demand fall 4.9% to just under 27mt over January-August.
The Russia-Ukraine war had a larger effect on demand in 2022 than this year, leading to an increase in demand in Russia and Ukraine. Year-to-date apparent demand in Russia was up 22.1% to 39.8mt, while demand in Ukraine jumped 84.6% on the same basis to 2.78mt. At 572,000t, Ukraine’s August demand was the highest since January 2022.
