(Photo: ThyssenKrupp AG)

The World Steel Association has announced they anticipate a 2.9 per cent rise in global steel demand in 2013.

The prediction was detailed in their Short Range Outlook (SRO), release on Friday, April 11th.

Furthermore, they also predict a similar amount of growth for the 2014 year and predict 1,500 megatonnes of the commodity will be used globally.

“2012 was a challenging year for the steel industry with apparent steel use increasing at the slowest rate since 2009 when demand declined by 6.5 per cent,” said Hans Jürgen Kerkhoff, Chairman of the worldsteel Economics Committee.

“This was mainly due to the Eurozone crisis which persisted throughout 2012 and whose impact was felt further afield.

However, in the early part of 2013, the key risks to the global economy – the Eurozone crisis, a hard landing for the Chinese economy, and the US fiscal cliff issue – have all stabilized considerably and we now expect a recovery in global steel demand to kick in by the second half, led by the emerging economies.

Leading the way in the predictions are China, and India. Apparent steel use in China is expected to grow by 3.5 per cent in 2013, while in 2014 steel demand is expected to grow by 2.5 per cent.

In India, steel demand is also expected to grow by 5.9 per cent in 2013, and is expected to further accelerate to 7.0 per cent in 2014.

As for some of the areas the WSO predicts a decline for, Japan is one, wher consumption is expected to be 2.2 per cent lower due to contracting shipbuilding and automotive sectors.

The European unio also suffered after steel use in fell by 9.3 per cent in 2012. Italy and Spain wher hit the hardest with steel use declining by over 18 per cent.

The U.S. experienced a boom in 2012 at 8.4 per cent due to a resurgence in the automotive and energy sectors while the forecast to grow by 2.7 per cent to 99.3 Mt in 2013.

The WSO predicts that for NAFTA as a whole, steel use will grow by 2.9 per cent and 3.0 per cent in 2013 and 2014 respectively.