Malaysia's steel demand growth slows down

Recently, the Southeast Asian Steel Association released data that it is expected that the steel demand of the six ASEAN countries (Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore) will increase by 3.4% year-on-year in 2023, reaching 77.6 million tons. Among them, Malaysia's steel demand is expected to increase by 4.1% year-on-year in 2023, reaching 7.8 million tons.

Although the steel demand in the region is expected to increase year-on-year in 2023, data from recent years shows that Malaysia's steel demand has entered a peak plateau period and the growth rate has slowed down. According to the statistics released by the World Steel Association, the apparent consumption of crude steel in Malaysia will be 7.571 million tons in 2020 and 7.813 million tons in 2021, both far lower than 10.7 million tons in 2019. From 2000 to 2020, Malaysia's apparent steel consumption had a compound annual growth rate of only 0.62%, only surpassing Singapore among the major ASEAN countries.