2011 – Steel Production and Usage Forecast

Steel is an alloy which mainly consists of iron and varying percentages of carbon. High carbon steel artefacts and weapons dating back as far as 400 BC have been found in numerous geographic locations like India and Eastern Africa. However, modern steel production, as we know it, primarily began during the 17th century in Europe.

Initially the most common approach to produce steel was by combining charcoal, iron ore and lime making use of sufficient heat to liquefy the three. The result of this is called Pig Iron, which has high levels of carbon and is hard and brittle. This was then heated again and beaten against an anvil with a hammer to remove the high levels of carbon until a stronger and more flexible product was produced, now known as mild steel. These days, air is forced through the liquid iron under extreme pressure, causing the carbon to attach itself to the oxygen and thus be removed from the iron as it passes through.

Modern day buildings, auto manufacturing, electrical goods and numerous other industries rely heavily on steel as an integral component of the production process, and have done so for many hundreds of years. The factors for this are numerous, as an example the capacity to have the ability to bend and shape steel to suite practically any imaginable requirements that modern day architectural trends might demand, or that it may be constructed on site to form the solid framework necessary to support the other great building necessity, concrete, means that it will continue to be an important component of the building and construction industry for many more years to come.

It really is really obvious that as far as the building and construction business is concerned, steel at present holds and will continue to hold its value as an important element and influencing factor within the industry. However in today’s market, the demand for steel in general, is said to be failing because of the lowering steel consumption of China and Japan. Some say the falling demand from China is due to its government’s order to decrease property speculation, therefore leading to 40% of the steel factories closing down in their country. Specialists are saying that Japan's cyclic trend in GDP is currently at a low, and this together with a downward trend in steel production and also the unfortunate recent earthquake disaster, are the combined cause of the country's decreased consumption.

However, this news should not threaten other producers of steel inside the industry in general, since India is moving rapidly towards taking over China and Japan’s position in the steel consumption market. According to statistics this year, India will soon be the largest single country consumer of steel, next to the United States, and some countries like Brazil will also have a notable increase in their steel consumption. Accordingly, the demand for the use of steel in the, machinery, electrical goods, motor vehicle production, manufacturing, and also the construction industries is still undeniably strong. This only begs the question of whether or not worldwide steel production and supply will be able to meet the demand.

Steel supplies and other steel construction information can be found at www.buildingregister.com.