The member countries of the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity warned on Monday 26 October about the “significant increase” in steel production excess capacity induced by the economic crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic, which they estimated at 606 million tonnes for 2020.
“The Covid-19 crisis is leading to one of the sharpest downturns in steel demand, with effects that may persist for years to come”, the countries said in a joint statement. They are concerned that several other jurisdictions have further increased their production capacity, including “China”, which, like India and Saudi Arabia, no longer participates in the work of the Forum.
“Until policy actions are taken to reduce structural excess capacity and allow markets to work more efficiently, the industry and its workers will continue to suffer unnecessarily”, adds the Forum. It calls on the G20, whose summit will take place on 21 and 22 November under Saudi chairmanship, to keep the issue of steel production excess capacity high on its agenda.
See the statement: https://bit.ly/37Nb2TF (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)