COVID-19 Impact on Flat Steel in Chemical and Materials Industry
INTRODUCTION
Flat steel products are the type of the steel which are in the form of sheets and plates. Flat steel products incorporate rolled or slabs that are a semi-finished steel commodity. In industries such as automotive, household furniture, shipbuilding and construction, flat steel products have a wide variety of applications and uses.
Flat steel products are of different types which are hot rolled sheets, cold rolled sheets, coated sheets and plates. Availability of different types of flat steel products increases their uses in the building and construction of the commercial building and residential.
The demand of the hot rolled sheets are more in the automobiles, construction, agricultural equipment, and machinery as the steel have the more strength which can help to increase the life span of the building and the equipment in different industries.
Cold rolled sheets are more used in the domestic appliances products which are manufactured in different industries under several processes. Cold rolled sheets are can be molded and pressed in any form according to the requirement of the products. Coated sheets are the type of the flat sheets which are coated with different material which as aluminum or zinc which enhances the anticorrosion properties of steel product.
Flat steel plates are being manufactured in different length and breadth according to the specific product such as in manufacturing of the industrial machine. Flat steel products can be cut in any shapes and manufactured in any dimension due to which application of the flat steel sheets products increases in automotive and construction industry.
IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON FLAT STEEL MARKET
The pandemic have hit the economy very hard word wide as the lockdown was imposed in all the regions which have made the situation challenging for all sector for growth and also the developing actives will be done in the stager manner. COVID-19 have also effected the import and export of the flat steel products across all the regions due to which the demand of the flat steel have decline. The demand of the flat steel have decline by 15%-17% in the COVID-19 period.
The COVID-19 has affected all sectors due to which the demand of the several products in the global as well as in the domestic market has fallen down. The pandemic have resulted in the slow growth in all the sectors as the industries have been impacted by the COVID-19 situation. Government and the other higher authorities have taken the steps for the control of the spread of the COVID-19 which have been started form China and spread in all over the word.
The government has done the lock down in the countries due to which production in the industries and other manufacturing sectors have fallen down. Also on the other had the demand of the finished products have also fallen down due to the lower earning of the disposable income at lower group.
With the spread Coronavirus which was originated in China has started impacting ongoing building and construction projects due to which the demand of the flat steel products have fallen down. With the increasing number of Coronavirus cases in the different countries engineers and workers are not reporting at manufacturing industries of steel products due to which the production of the flat steel have fallen down in the COVID-19 period.
COVID-19 have resulted in the halt in the automotive, construction industry as due to the lockdown most of the industries which used more of the flat steel products are running at half of our usual working run rate due to which demand of the flat steel products have fallen down and manufactures have to face losses during the pandemic situation. The demand of the flat steel products for the production of the domestic appliances products have fallen down by approximately 53% during the COVID-19.
The demand of the flat steel has fallen down in all the regions due to the COVID-19. As the demand-supply imbalance can also be felt in Japan, South Korea, India, and the U.S. worsens due to the pandemic situation. The manufactures of the flat steel products have to face losses to the lowering demand in different sectors.
