Global steel consolidation - Mittal steel's acquisition of arcelor

Abstract

Steel Industry The steel industry consists of the production of crude steel, blast furnace (pig) iron and direct reduced iron. The major sectors in which steel is consumed are as follows: • Automotive: Flat Cold rolled, Flat Stainless steel, Long Stainless steel are consumed for producing a wide range of automobile parts • Construction: Though it is highly fragmented, this is the largest sector of steel and a range of products are consumed in this sector. • Packaging: This sector requires a lot of customization due to a huge range of products in this sector. • Appliances: HR Coils are majorly used in this sector for large casings etc. Globally, all steel-using sectors saw strong growth in 2005, although there were wide variations between geographical zones. Production in the automotive industry rose by more than 11% in India, Brazil and China, 3.3% in the USA and 3.8% in Russia. In Europe, however, production fell by 1.07%. Production of machinery also rose strongly in emerging countries (+11.2% in India and +29% in China), but also in the USA (+4.8%) and Russia (+4%). Meanwhile, there were declines of 1% in Europe (EU15) and in Brazil. In metalworking, growth was particularly robust in China (+26%) and Turkey (+47%). Production increased by 3.1% in the USA and by 1.5% in the EU15. The construction sector benefited from firm momentum in the global economy. Construction activity rose by 4.6% in the USA, 9% in China, 6.1% in India and 7.3% in Russia, but only 0.2% in the EU15, reflecting the gloom in the European economy. Household appliance production also saw strong growth in 2005: +11.1% in the USA, +11.2% in India, +18.5% in China, +12.9% in Turkey, and +4.2% in Russia, comfortably offsetting the 2.0% decline in Europe. Sectoral Outlook The surging performance of steel sector is a recent phenomenon, driven primarily by consumption in China, Brazil, India and other key developing nations. As illustrated by Figure 1, the demand is revisiting the growth of 1950-1970s, an era of industrial development of present developed countries. The growth was halted until 1990s, when the demand from China created a stir in the market. The other drivers for such growth are listed in Figure 2, which shows the countries contributing to a growing demand.