CRU Webinar: Coronavirus—Impact on Global Steel and Raw Materials Markets

Gauging how COVID-19 will impact global commerce, specifically the world’s steel industry, is almost as difficult to predict as the spread of the virus itself. CRU analysts will tackle the subject in a new webinar this week.

As CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg reports, the news is not all bad. For one, the pace of new infections is starting to slow. While infections grew at a double-digit rate in the early days of the epidemic, the current daily growth rate is just 1 percent as the total nears 80,000 worldwide. Two, the number who have already survived the virus is nearing 20,000. “Nearly 20 percent of all the infected people have completely recovered from the virus,” he said. And three, while the virus has spread outside of China, the number of cases remains low at just over 1,000 as of this past week.