Posted on 07 Feb 2023
Long steel demand in ASEAN-6 remained positive at 1.9% y-o-y to 15.3 million tonnes in the first half of 2022. Production increased 8.2% y-o-y to 15.7 million tonnes in the same period. Import dropped 11% y-o-y to 4.8 million tonnes. Export continued to expand at 6% y-o-y to 5.2 million tonnes.
Indonesia enjoyed a significant growth rate of long steel demand at 21% y-o-y to 3 million tonnes or an increase of half a million tonnes from first half of 2021. Long steel production expanded from 2.3 million tonnes to nearly 3 million tonnes in the first half of 2022. Import declined 9% y-o-y to 632,439 tonnes in the same period. This was mainly due to a significant decrease of wire rod import while import of bar and section registered positive growth rates. Export continued to increase at 20% y-o-y to 525,586 tonnes.
Malaysia’s long steel demand jumped by 400,000 tonnes to 1.1 million tonnes in the first six months of 2022. Production (mainly bar and wire rod) increased 8% y-o-y to 2.9 million tonnes. Long steel import increased moderately, by 5% y-o-y to 825,702 tonnes in the same period. This was mainly due to the increase of section and bar import to 344,047 tonnes and 101,305 tonnes respectively. Export dropped 7% y-o-y to 2.6 million tonnes in the same period. The significant jump of bar export since first half of 2021 started to slow down while export of wire rod remained significant.
Philippines’ long steel demand dropped 6.7% y-o-y to 2.9 million tonnes in the first half of 2022. Production jumped 300,000 tonnes to 2.2 million tonnes in the same period. Section production was not significant, but the volume increased dramatically from 175,000 tonnes in the first half of 2021 to 220,708 tonnes in the same period of 2022. Bar production increased 15% y-o-y to nearly 2 million tonnes. There is no wire rod production in the country.
Long steel import, on the other hand, dropped by nearly half from 1.2 million tonnes to 653,990 tonnes from January to June 2022. There is no export of long steel from Philippines.
Singapore’s long steel demand dropped 7.5% y-o-y to 871,537 tonnes in the first half of 2022. Both production and import declined 6-7% y-o-y. Bar and wire rod import registered a decline of 11% and 12% respectively. Section import, on the other hand, increased as high as 21% y-o-y to 161,584 tonnes in the same period of 2022.
Export of long steel increased slightly, at 1.5% y-o-y to 208,038 tonnes in the first half of 2022. Major export of long steel in the country were export of bar and wire rod and both volume declined by 10% and 2.5% y-o-y. However, seamless pipe export jumped significantly, by 32% y-o-y to 64,652 tonnes in the first half of 2022.
Long steel demand in Thailand registered a negative growth rate of 11% y-o-y to 3.2 million tonnes in the first six months of 2022. Production dropped 7% y-o-y to 2.5 million tonnes. Import reduced 12% y-o-y to 1.1 millon tonnes. Most of long steel import registered double digit negative rates, except import of seamless pipes, a positive growth rate of 34% y-o-y to 144,114 tonnes.
Export of long steel, on the other hand, increased 24% y-o-y to 397,334 tonnes in the first half of 2022. Export of section, bar and wire rod registered double digit growth rates of 42%, 16.5% and 17% respectively. Meanwhile, export of seamless pipes dropped 12.4% y-o-y in the same period.
Vietnam’s long steel demand stagnated at 4.2 million tonnes in the first six months of 2022. Production increased moderately, at 4.4% y-o-y to 4.8 million tonnes. Import rose around 100,000 tonnes to 853,153 tonnes. Export continued to increased to reach 1.5 million tonnes in the first half of 2022. Bar export in Vietnam surged by nearly 300,000 tonnes to 727,423 tonnes in the same period. Wire rod export remained a positive growth rate of 6.8% y-o-y to 614,257 tonnes while section export reduced slightly.
Source:SEAISI
