The World Steel Association released its Short Range Outlook on 13 October 2025, forecasting that global steel demand would be flat in 2025 at about 1,749 million tonnes, before a modest rebound of 1.3 percent in 2026 to 1,773 million tonnes. The association said it was cautiously optimistic that demand would bottom out in 2025 despite a considerable escalation of the global trade war. China's steel demand was expected to fall about 2.0 percent in 2025, with the decline slowing to 1 percent in 2026 as the housing market bottomed out. India remained the fastest-growing major market, with demand forecast to rise about 9 percent in both 2025 and 2026, while the developing world excluding China was projected to grow 3.4 percent in 2025 and 4.7 percent in 2026. The developed world faced a fourth consecutive annual decline, down 0.5 percent in 2025, although the European Union and Britain were expected to grow 1.3 percent and the United States 1.8 percent.
Source: World Steel Association — https://worldsteel.org/media/press-releases/2025/worldsteel-short-range-outlook-october-2025/
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