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Steel Outlook Dims as Iron Ore Powerhouse Flags Growth Woes

  • Australia says world industrial production outlook weakening
  • Chinese GDP growth expected to continue to ease slowly
Brazil steel
Photographer: Rich Press/Bloomberg
Updated on

The world’s top iron ore exporter cut its outlook for global steel demand, joining a growing chorus of warnings that trade tensions and slowing growth are hitting the sector hard.

“Risks to the outlook have risen in recent months, as a range of potential downsides emerge,” the Australian government said in a quarterly report, citing trade tensions, the possibility of an earlier-than-expected global downturn and prospects of a U.S. recession. World steel production and consumption will be lower than previously expected this year and next, it said.