Key Commodities Trends and Challenges: Steel and Chrome

The global steel industry is severely disrupted, preventing a strong 2022 and 2023 recovery due to COVID-19-induced labor shortages, ongoing energy crises, global strikes, and protests. Rising energy costs have impacted production as leading steel mills such as ArcelorMittal and US Steel are idling production, impacting the automotive, construction, and manufacturing industries. Additionally, the production of another critical metal, chrome, has also fallen to its lowest level, lowering stocks of leading automotive giants with production suffering from severe supply shortages and increased costs.