[ferro-alloys.com]The Middle East and North Africa region is expected to see finished steel demand grow by 2.8% this year to 73.7 million mt, the World Steel Association said Tuesday during its annual general assembly in Tokyo.

This year's growth in MENA follows a 1.1% decline seen in 2017, when finished steel consumption totaled 71.7 million mt. For 2019, demand is expected to increase by 2.2% to 75.3 million mt, according to worldsteel.

Government reforms and a stronger oil market have aided steel demand in Gulf Cooperation Council countries, in particular, worldsteel said, while the outlook for Iran is less favorable due to the reinstatement of US sanctions.

Emirates Steel CEO Saeed G Al Remeithi, who is also worldsteel's economics committee chairman, said during a press briefing at the event that government-backed infrastructure projects throughout the Middle East have helped the region's steel demand growth to return this year.

In North Africa, Egypt's economy has been "thriving and investment is also looking [to be] huge," Remeithi said.

The lira's decline in Turkey has that country's steel demand expected to contract by 2.3% this year to 35.2 million mt, following growth of 5.8% in 2017, when steel consumption totaled 36.1 million mt.

However, worldsteel said the government's stabilization efforts there, along with the manufacturing sector's return to competitiveness, should facilitate a recovery in 2019, when demand is expected to increase by 1.5% to 35.8 million mt.

worldsteel Director General Edwin Basson said as the Middle East continues to develop its own steelmaking capacity, its reliance on material from other markets could lessen over time. When that shift might take place is unclear, though, he said.

"The Middle East has always played this absorbing role [for steel exports] on a global scale, and with the growth and internal potential in that region, this is a longer-term question that we are looking at to see to what extent will global balance forces be slightly disrupted if the Middle East starts to become a lot more self- sufficient," Basson said. "Right now, they still absorb some material from elsewhere, so let's not chase ghosts where there are no ghosts."

• [Editor:王可]