WSA: Global Steel Production Grows by 2.7 Percent

Global steel production grew by 2.7 percent in the three months through January, though the pace of growth continued to be slowed by pollution control restrictions in China. Excluding China, the pace of growth for world steel production was 4.8 percent, according to the latest Steel Market Update analysis of World Steel Association data.

On Feb. 5, Moody’s Analytics survey of business confidence reported: “Global businesses remain upbeat at the start of 2018. Sentiment is especially strong in the U.S., likely buoyed by the recent corporate tax cuts. Abstracting from the weekly vagaries of the survey, a strong 40% of responses to the nine questions posed in the survey are positive, while less than 10% of the responses are negative. Respondents are notably cheery about present business conditions, as about half say they are improving, and they expect even better conditions by this summer.”