We are confident about the prospects for increasing steel demand in the medium term despite the current economic difficulties in the United States. Global steel consumption increased through the 1990's at an annual rate of near to 1 percent. however, this figure was distorted by the dramatic fall in the former USSR from 150 to just 34 million tonnes over the period. Steel consumption expanded at the rate of almost 3 percent per year in the rest of the world in the last decade.Our forecast for growth in apparent consumption of crude steel to 2005 in the world is just 1.5 percent per annum. Demand in the former USSR is increasing. However, we have factored into our calculations a reduction in demand in the United States and China over the next few years. These were two of the major countries which provided the stimulus for demand through most of the 1990's.
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