Middle East and Africa intra-regional trade surges
The Middle East and Africa combined extra-regional steel exports surged 97% on-year to 6.1 million tonnes in 2016, of which 3mt went to Asia excluding China and Japan, 1.5mt to the EU and 0.6mt to NAFTA, according to a worldsteel report published this week.
Total Middle East and Africa steel exports, including intra-regional trade, soared 185% to 13.4mt, indicating shifting trade patterns within the region.
Middle East extra-regional steel imports fell -3% on-year in 2016 to 28.3mt, of which 10.5mt came from China, 5.6mt from the CIS and 4.9mt from “other Europe,” which includes Turkey. Asia excluding Japan and China supplied 3.7mt. African imports were down -7% to 27.7mt, of which 8.6mt came from China, 6.9mt from the CIS and 6.5mt from the EU.
In terms of scrap, Middle Eastern exports were flat on-year in 2016 at 1.5mt, while imports inched up 17% to 700,000 tonnes, Kallanish learns from the report. The vast majority of these imports came from NAFTA.
African scrap exports fell -35% on-year in 2016 to 1.3mt, while imports dropped -19% to 1.3mt. The two regions’ role thus remained small in global scrap trade in 2016, which amounted to 86mt, up 4% on 2015.
Of the Middle East and Africa’s combined scrap exports of 2.8mt, 2.1mt went to Asia and 0.5mt to “other Europe,” while 0.2mt went to the EU.
Middle East and Africa iron ore extra-regional exports, meanwhile, rose 6% on-year in 2016 to 105.5mt. China took 70.5mt, Asia excluding China and Japan 17.7mt and the EU 12mt. The region’s imports of iron ore fell -16% to 29.1mt, of which 17.9mt was supplied by the Americas excluding NAFTA and 6.1mt by the EU.
Middle Eastern apparent finished steel use fell -1% in 2016 to 53.1mt, while per capita consumption was down slightly to 222kg. African steel use dropped -2% to 38.7mt and per capita consumption inched down to 31.3kg. Global use in 2016 was 1.52 billion tonnes, with per capita consumption averaging at 207.9kg.
In 2015, meanwhile, Middle East and Africa true finished steel steel use fell -2% on-year to 87.7mt.
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Anonymous
Very good overview of the weekly steel market.
Anonymous