Steel short-term outlook October 2022

Chinese real estate sector showed no signs of recovery, overshadowing healthy demand from the automotive and industrial sectors. Pessimism was also witnessed in demand ex-China as the Russia-Ukraine war continued to impact steel-intensive sectors and push energy prices upwards. Further, threats of recession and inflationary pressures kept demand weak in the west. On the flip side, India remained resilient and attained robust steel demand growth. Nonetheless, it will not be enough to offset the demand weakness globally. We, therefore, expect global demand to remain sluggish this year. In 2023, the gradual revival of Chinese demand and strong infrastructure push in India will bring about global demand recovery.