According to the Short Range Outlook (SRO) for 2021 and 2022 released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel), global steel demand was forecasted to increase by 5.8% in 2021, reaching 1.874 billion tons, and the figure will rise by 2.7% to 1.925 billion tons in 2022.

The report showed that the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic will stabilize in the second quarter of this year. With the smooth vaccination, economic activities in major steel-consuming countries will return to normal gradually. However, several years will be needed for some most developed economies to return to the pre-epidemic level of steel demand.