Apparent steel consumption among the ASEAN-6 countries including Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia is expected to approximate 77.2 million tonnes for 2021, or up 7.5% on year despite their ongoing battles against the COVID-19, according to the data shared by Yeoh Wee-Jin, secretary general of South East Asia Iron & Steel Institute (SEAISI) on November 22 at the 2021 SEAISI Sustainability & Construction Fortnight e-Event.
“Efforts are underway to boost economic recovery”, as all the countries have been progressing with vaccination, aiming at “achieving herd community by Q1 2022”, and “public construction is expected to drive construction recovery”, he shared, though acknowledging that “challenges remain due to volatile commodity and energy prices and disruptions from the various COVID related restrictions”.
Among the ASEAN-6, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore are expected to have their steel demand reach or exceed pre-pandemic levels in 2021, with Indonesian steel demand to reach 16 million tonnes, or the same as 2019, Philippines at 11 million tonnes against 10 million tonnes in 2019, and Singapore at 3 million tonnes against 2 million tonnes two years ago, he quoted the SEAISI projection.
Among the core steel consuming sectors for the ASEAN-6, construction accounted for 78% of the total 80.3 million tonnes for 2019, automaking accounted for 7.7% and electrical and electronics manufacturing contributed to 4%, according to Yeoh, and for 2021, demand from construction will remain robust, though that from auto manufacturing will be consistently challenged by the auto chip shortage.
Source: SEAISI
In the foreseeable future, ASEAN-6 will still heavily rely on imported steel to fill up the demand-supply gap, according to him, sharing that for 2020, the region remained as a net steel importer with 25.6 million tonnes, though the volume was lower than 35.6 million tonnes in 2019 due to lower demand among the six countries in 2020 with the COVID-19 outbreak since the second quarter, he shared.
In the first half of 2021, the six countries consumed 38 million tonnes of finished steel, or up 14.1% on year, their total steel production grew 25% on year to 25 million tonnes, and their net steel imports hovered at around 13 million tonnes, the same as H1 2020, according to the SEAISI data.
Written by Hongmei Li, li.hongmei@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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