Thai steel sector starts year with sagging production

摘要

Thailand’s steel industry started the year 2019 with rather pessimistic results, seeingproduction and exports decline. Steel imports, however, increased in January.In January 2019, finished steel production in Thailand decreased by 9% to 620,995 tyear-on-year, according to Iron and Steel Institute of Thailand (ISIT). The longsoutput decreased by 4% to 424,563 t y-o-y while flats production went down byalmost 19% to 196,432 t, mainly due to low capacity utilization rate of most localproducers along with weak demand for steel in the local market.