Worldsteel updates its indirect steel data

Cross-border trade in steel-containing products continued to grow in 2024, according to tracking performed by the Brussels-based World Steel Association (Worldsteel).

According to the organization, which consists of national steel trade associations from 70 countries, from 2014 to 2024, indirect exports of steel increased by 26 percent from 325 million metric tons (mmt) in 2014 to 410 mmt in 2024. The calculated volume of the cross-border trading of steel-containing products, referred to as the indirect trade of steel, checked in at 93 percent of the volume of the direct exporting of finished and semifinished steel in 2024.

Steelmakers in several countries, including those in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), have for several years criticized steelmakers in China of benefiting from unfair subsidies or government support to produce more steel than its economy can support and then flooding the global market for steel.

This year, President Donald Trump expanded the nation’s tariffs on inbound steel to include a variety of steel-containing products.

Worldsteel says the global trading of fabricated goods involves calculating how much steel by weight went into producing a given stream of manufactured products, and for product classification, the organization's indirect trade study has adopted the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System of the United Nations.

Trade data gathered from the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database focused on metal products, mechanical machinery, electrical equipment, domestic appliances and automotive and other transport goods, according to Worldsteel.

A more than 10-page publication containing indirect steel trade charts as calculated by Worldsteel is available free of charge to association members and $6,850 through the Worldsteel website.