CONCLUSIONS
The prospects for the EC economy in 2017 and 2018 are regarded as favorable, but with risks and uncertainties. The European economy will develop in harmony with the global economy. Metal consumption in the EC will continue to grow, but slowly. As before, the market for steel products will depend on the competition with imports, which exceed exports. Production of raw steel in the EC shrank from 166 million t in 2015 to 162 million t in 2016.
Along with other positive trends, forecasts of the growth in global steel demand (to 1548 million t in 2018) offer hope that demand for metallurgical coal will also expand. In recent years, this market has been unstable, on account of new consumers in China, unfavorable trends in the global coal production, and difficult weather conditions in some regions.
The market for metallurgical coal is improving today. A favorable balance of supply and demand is expected, along with the development of new coal fields and the expansion of exploitation in existing fields (in Mozambique, Indonesia, and Russia). Coal of new ranks is being included in coking batch, and exports of coal from North America to the Asia– Pacific region are increasing.
