Steel trade structure and the balance of steelmaking technologies in non-OECD countries: the implications for catch-up path

Abstract

The landscape of the steel industry has changed significantly since the start of the twenty-first century. The countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have played an active role in the global steel industry. However, in the past decade, non-OECD countries have also caught up with trends. Non-OECD countries have developed from peripheral players to major centres of global steel production and trade, and they should continue to play a crucial role in the global steel market as a result of steady capacity additions. In addition to changes in the composition of the global steel market, there has been a gradual change in the structure of production technologies in the global steel industry. With the increasing importance of the electric arc furnace (EAF) route, does the blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace (BF/BOF) route still play an important role for non-OECD countries to catch-up with OECD countries? This study provides an in-depth analysis of non-OECD countries’ steel production and trade, and the results indicate that the balance of steelmaking technologies is associated with steel trade structure in non-OECD countries. The BF/BOF route is more likely to be significant for non-OECD countries to become net exporters of steel and diversify and/or to upgrade exports of steel products.