In 2016, the consumption of steel in the five ASEAN countries increased, which provided a good support for the domestic steel producers and foreign steel suppliers in ASEAN countries. Under the leadership of Vietnam, the ASEAN region will remain the world's most growth potential steel market.
According to the preliminary data released by the association of Southeast Asian steel, as expected, as of 2016, the five ASEAN countries steel demand continued to grow, an increase of nearly 14%, reaching $74 million. Last year, the ASEAN countries steel consumption appears extremely strong growth is mainly due to: Vietnam and Thailand construction activity increased, recovery of Philippines steel demand in Indonesia and Malaysia, and the steel consumption is stronger than expected.
At the same time, in addition to Malaysia, other ASEAN four countries are steel production to maintain strong growth momentum, mainly due to the area of many steel capacity expansion projects have been put into operation, promote local steel producers to enhance competitiveness. According to the Vietnam iron and Steel Association statistics, in 2016 Vietnam steel production to achieve strong growth, an increase of up to 16.8%, reaching 17 million 500 thousand tons.
It is noteworthy that, in 2016 the growth of steel demand in ASEAN countries exceeded all previous agency expectations. In particular, the association of Southeast Asian steel is expected last year, the five countries of the EU steel consumption grew by 8.3%, while the actual increase of nearly 14%. Taking into account this positive results, the industry is generally expected in 2017 ASEAN steel demand will be at least an increase of 6%-8%, of which the highest increase in Vietnam, at least 10%.
