Washington (Platts)--The newly-named World Steel Association has postponed its prediction for 2009 steel consumption until the spring of next year, because of uncertainty caused by the current economic turmoil, the association's representatives said at a conference in Washington.

 

"It is impossible to predict how long demand will be affected," Guillermo Vogel, vice-chairman of Tenaris Tamsa said, adding that the market situation depended on macroeconomic financial factors that are "out of our control."

 

Nonetheless, steel consumption is expected to grow faster than GDP, panelists including Lakshmi Mittal of ArcelorMittal, John Surma of US Steel and Ian Christmas, director general of the World Steel Association (formerly the International Iron and Steel Association) said. "Once the financial crisis will be behind us, the world will continue to grow," Mittal said, "and steel will continue to be in demand."

 

WSA will published its report on the 2009 demand outlook in April 2009.

MILLS WARY OF PRODUCTION TALK

 

There was an observable reluctance by the panel to respond to a question from the audience about limiting steel production in response to lower demand, in the context of ongoing class action suits in the US against steelmakers for coordinating mill outages to regulate price.

 

Before answering the question, Surma clarified that he could only speak for his own company. He then said: "We produce in accordance with customers' demand."

 

Mittal openly re-iterated that ArcelorMittal was ready to cut its global output by 15% to match demand should this be necessary. "We're not producing to stock," he said.

 

 

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