The Arab world has been less affected by the financial crisis of 2008–2009 than many
other regions of the world. As an illustration, the apparent steel consumption has been
growing to a level of 40 to 45 Mt/year, like in China or India but not so fast. The steel
production is also growing, but is still in the range of 15 to 17 Mt/year: the region is a
large steel importer, around 30 Mt/year. It is interesting to note that this trade is,
essentially, between the two sides of the Mediterranean Sea. Regarding the production, it
must be remembered that this area has the special feature of being based on the direct
reduction of the iron ores through the natural gas-based processes such as Midrex or Energiron (ex – HYL). Steelmaking is carried out in
EAF (electric arc furnaces) and it must be noted that, in the Marrakesh congress, the
Turkish delegation mentioned that a new company in this country is designing and
manufacturing electric arc furnaces for mini-mills based on scrap. A last point has to be
stressed: the diversification of the steel products made in the Arab world. After a time
where the emphasis was on light long products (reinforcing bars and light profiles), the
production is now moving to heavy products such as beams and tubes, and flat products.