Posted on 13 Jun 2025
ASEAN-6 long steel demand showed a robust growth of 9.2% in the first half of 2024. Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam were the main drivers, each experiencing double-digit increases in long steel demand. The Philippines showed only a marginal increase. In contrast, Singapore and Thailand saw a decline in demand during the same period.
Indonesia’s long steel demand registered impressive growth, at 21.4% y-o-y to 4.4 million tonnes. The demand was entirely met by domestic production, which rose by an even stronger 32% y-o-y. Imports remained below 700, 000 tonnes while exports rose significantly from 511,672 tonnes in the first half of 2023 to 845,244 tonnes in the same period of 2024, a 65% increase y-o-y. This was driven mainly by the huge increase in bar export, from 42,827 tonnes in the first half of 2023 to 201,248 tonnes in the same period of 2024. Meanwhile, wire rod exports dropped by 100,000 tonnes.
The robust growth in Indonesia’s long steel demand is largely attributed to ongoing infrastructure projects and rapid urbanization, alongside they expansion of real estate demand.
Malaysia’s long steel demand showed remarkable growth rate of 27.5% y-o0y to 1.65 million tonnes in the first half of 2024. This is to reflect robust performance in the construction and infrastructure sectors.
Additionally, Malaysia has cemented its position as a net exporter of long steel products, especially export of bar (1.5 million tonnes) and wire rod (957,490 tonnes). This was a result of significant capacity expansions in the past years. Domestic production at 3.3 million tonnes is also to serve external market (2.55 million tonnes).
The Philippines’ long steel demand showed a modest growth of 1.3%, reaching 3.3 million tonnes in the first half of 2024. However, the country faced challenges in domestic production, which declined significantly more than 300,000 tonnes to below 2 million tonnes. On the other hand, imports increased 400,000 tonnes to 1.27 million tonnes. There is no export of long steel in the country.
Singapore’s primary steel consuming sector is construction; therefore, the country’s steel demand focuses more on long steel. However, long steel demand dropped 18.6% to a million tonnes in the first half of 2024, accompanied by reductions in domestic production, import and export. Domestic production shrank by half to 124,296 tonnes. Imports dropped around 200,000 tonnes to 1.1 million tonnes. Singapore did not export much and the volume dropped 26.3% to 232,207 tonnes.
Thailand’s trend for long steel demand continued into the first half of 2024. The demand has further declined in the first half of 2024, contracting 7.4% to 2.9 million tonnes. Domestic production also dropped 10%, falling to 2.1 million tonnes. Thailand’s long steel import dropped 2.9% to 1.18 million tonnes. The decline in imports was due to a robust decline in bar imports, 2.7% y-o-y to 247,035 tonnes. Wire rod remains the major import, and despite the overall decline in imports, wire rod imports saw an 8% y-o-y growth.
Long steel exports also saw a decrease of 9.3%, reaching 403,372 tonnes in the first half of 2024. The main factor behind this decline was the robust decline in seamless pipe exports, which plummeted from 184,662 tonnes in the first half of 2023 to 48,072 tonnes in the same period of 2024. This was mainly a robust decline of seamless pipe export to USA, from 160,000 tonnes in the first half of 2023 to 27,000 tonnes in the same period of 2024.
However, despite the significant drop in seamless pipe exports, other products such as section, bar and wire rod showed double-digit growth in exports.
Vietnam’s long steel demand showed a strong performance in the first half of 2024, with an impressive double-digit growth of 18.6% y-o-y, reaching 5.6 million tonnes. This reflects the growing construction and infrastructure activities.
Domestic production also saw a positive boost, rising from nearly 5 million tonnes in the first half of 2023 to 5.78 million tonnes in the same period of 2024. Long steel export surged 5.5% to 961,489 tonnes. The growth was largely driven by the export of bar, which saw a remarkable 51% y-o-y increase to 519,065 tonnes.
All in all, the ASEAN-6 long steel market continued to experience a positive growth, primarily driven by the on-going government infrastructure projects and the increasing private sector demand for construction materials. With a total 18.8 million tonnes of long steel demand, ASEAN-6 countries are largely self-sufficient in meeting their long steel demand through domestic production. Some of the countries even have capacity to export long steel products to other countries.
Source:SEAISI
