Visible consumption of steel products in Malaysia in 2024 will add more than 5% year-on-year to reach 8.3 million tons. This forecast was made by the national metallurgical association Misif, which published a report on the current state and prospects of the industry.
This figure peaked in 2016 at 10.3 million tons. In 2020, during the covid epidemic, Malaysia’s apparent consumption of steel products fell to 6.8 million tons, but has been recovering little by little in recent years.
As noted by Misif president Datuk Lim Hon Thieu Lim, the main source of consumption growth is large construction and infrastructure projects. In particular, a number of Western companies have announced their intention to invest $2 billion to build the country’s first Google data center. In Penang, the construction of a light rail subway has been announced.
According to the estimates of the head of Misif, if all these projects come true, the consumption of steel products in the country may reach 9 million tons or about 265 kg per capita per year. Malaysia is home to 34 million people. By this indicator, it is close to Uzbekistan.
The association also said in the report that the country’s steel production was 7.5 million tons in 2023, up 4.5% from a year earlier. But the industry’s average capacity utilization rate does not even reach 40% due to a surplus of long product mini-mills.
In 2023, Malaysian companies exported 8.2 million tons of steel products, up 14.5% from 2022. Imports increased by 17.3% to 7.3 million tons.