Demand for welding and cutting products is determined largely by worldwide consumption of steel and, to a lesser but growing extent, of other metals, such as aluminium, which is increasingly used in shipbuilding, transport and the fabrication of capital equipment.
The International Iron and Steel Institute (‘IISI’) estimates world output of crude steel in 2007 at 1,343.5 million metric tonnes (‘mmt’), an increase of 7.5 per cent compared with 2006. China produced 489.0 mmt (2006: 422.7 mmt), an increase of 15.7 per cent, and accounted for 36.4 per cent of global steel production (2006: 33.8 per cent). The rest of the world increased production by 3.2 per cent.
Worldwide growth is expected to continue for the foreseeable future, led by increased consumption in Asia and particularly China.
The welding market continues to experience ‘process conversion’ whereby end users migrate from the use of welding electrodes and simple power sources to higher productivity welding processes, which use continuous consumables such as solid, or flux cored welding wires, and require more advanced power sources. Whilst this conversion process has reached close to maturity in markets such as Europe, North America and Japan, it will continue for the foreseeable future at varying rates within the world’s emerging markets, particularly in China and elsewhere in Asia.