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Economics and finances
ArticleName Steel can be relied on
ArticleAuthor H. J. Kerkhoff.
ArticleAuthorData

H. J. Kerkhoff, President of "Steel" Economical Union, Chairman of the Board of Steel Institute VDEh, Düsseldorf; redaktion@stahleisen.de

Abstract

The global steel market started on a strong note into the year. The steel industry has taken great strides to leave the crisis behind it already in 2010: crude steel production increased by 15 % and rose to a new high level of 1.412 billion t. Worldwide production expanded by a further 9 % during the first three months of this year, compared to the same period last year. The high level of dynamism on the international steel markets is a result of the current very lively world economy: according to the International Monetary Fund, global gross domestic product will rise by 4.4 % in 2011 and 4.5% in 2012. These attractive growth prospects, however, are also accompanied by considerable economic risks: the problems in the global financial sector remain unsolved. Energy and raw material prices are generally rising steeply and are also highly volatile. Then there is the phenomenon of multi-speed recovery: in the fast growing nations, particularly in Asia, the economic catch-up processis continuing to generate enormous demand for steel. However, this growth also varies considerably from region to region within the European Union: while in Germany and Poland steel demand will at least be able to reach the high values of 2006 again in 2011/2012, in Spain it will remain more than 40 % below the pre-crisis level.

keywords Steel production, global markets, world economy, European Union, raw material prices, steel demand, crisis, domestic product, normalization, efficiency, carbon dioxide emissions
Language of full-text russian
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