Nippon Steel predicts global steel demand to slow down

Nippon Steel predicts global steel demand to slow down

Akio Mimura, Chairman of Nippon Steel Corp., said yesterday in a newspaper interview that the growth in global steel demand will slow to less than 5 percent in 2009 due to the global financial crisis even thought it grew 7.5 percent in 2007.The World Steel Association (WSA), formerly the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI), also holds the same opinion as Mimura's to expect the steel demand will grow next year, but the outlook is still uncertain because of the credit crisis.
However, this association will not update its forecast until next April due to sharply changing circumstances.