H. J. Kerkhoff, President of "Steel" Economical Union, Chairman of the Board of Steel Institute VDEh, Düsseldorf; redaktion@stahleisen.de

The global steel market started on a strong note into the year. The steel industry has taken great strides to leave the crisis behind it already in 2010: crude steel production increased by 15 % and rose to a new high level of 1.412 billion t. Worldwide production expanded by a further 9 % during the first three months of this year, compared to the same period last year. The high level of dynamism on the international steel markets is a result of the current very lively world economy: according to the International Monetary Fund, global gross domestic product will rise by 4.4 % in 2011 and 4.5% in 2012. These attractive growth prospects, however, are also accompanied by considerable economic risks: the problems in the global financial sector remain unsolved. Energy and raw material prices are generally rising steeply and are also highly volatile. Then there is the phenomenon of multi-speed recovery: in the fast growing nations, particularly in Asia, the economic catch-up processis continuing to generate enormous demand for steel. However, this growth also varies considerably from region to region within the European Union: while in Germany and Poland steel demand will at least be able to reach the high values of 2006 again in 2011/2012, in Spain it will remain more than 40 % below the pre-crisis level.