Brighter future from steel forecasts

UK production of constructional steelwork will continue its steady recovery from its 2013 low point over the years to 2018, and will pass the 1M tonnes a year level again in 2017, according to market forecasts carried out for Tata Steel and the BCSA.

The forecasts from market researchers Construction Markets predict demand growth in 2015 of over 9% as the key commercial and industrial sectors continue to climb out of the recession that bottomed in 2013 when output was 845M tonnes. The pace of growth is expected to slow down in following years with a rise of almost 6% over 2016 and 2017 to take output back over 1M tonnes.

Production growth will be maintained in the last year of the forecast period, 2018, at 2.5%. UK consumption however will remain below 1M tomes a year due to some of the steel being exported.

Strong demand growth is expected in the offices market in particular, of almost 40% between 2014 and 2018, with the industrial sector also growing strongly by over 20%.

BCSA Director General Sarah McCann-Bartlett said: “We will still be under the long term average of demand for constructional steelwork, even at the end of this forecast period, but it is encouraging that demand is moving in the right direction again. UK Structural steelwork contractors have sufficient capacity to meet all of this demand, although we can expect to see some price increases.

“It is also good to note the strong growth forecast for market areas of traditional strength for steel, like offices and industrial buildings. We remain a strong industry with a solid foundation to build the future on.”