Dapeng Town Industrial Park, Tongshan District, Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China
At present, Africa’s steel demand is mainly driven by infrastructure investment. Since 2000, infrastructure investment in sub-Saharan Africa began to grow rapidly, and the proportion of long material consumption in Africa also increased substantially in the same period.
Although demand has grown rapidly in recent years, per-capita steel consumption in Africa remains low. In 2018, Africa’s per-capita crude steel consumption was 35.4 kg, only 14% of the global average and 11% of developed countries in Europe and America. Only a few countries, such as Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria, and South Africa, consume more than 100 kilograms per capita, and half of them consume less than 20 kilograms per capita. Demand for steel in Africa remains low and has yet to explode into growth.
Per-capita consumption of crude steel in Africa is so low that the overall economy is underdeveloped and the industrial base is weak. With the exception of a few countries such as South Africa and Egypt, most of Africa is dominated by light industries such as mining, textiles, timber processing, and agricultural products, where steel strength is generally low.
