Industry Trends

Asia Pacific Iron Ore Pellets Market Size was over USD 38.5 billion in 2019 and the market will grow at 3.5% CAGR up to 2026.
 

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Increasing industrial activities owing to the presence of high-growth economies and population concentration are set to increase demand for commodities in Asia Pacific. Additionally, the growing automotive industry and rapidly modernizing economies are other driving forces promoting the market growth. Governments across the region are actively introducing environmental-friendly and globally standardized production methods to improve competitiveness. For instance, recently, the China government planned to shut down illegally operated induction furnace steelmaking capacities, which may have a positive impact on the industry expansion. Furthermore, the growing demand for steel products from the end-user industries including construction & automotive and industrial production is likely to drive product demand.

The industry will face challenges due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the form of closure of iron and steelmaking facilities across the region. The closure has impacted the pricing of iron ores in many countries due to declining consumption of steel. However, the steel sector is expected to have significant growth by the end of 2021 owing to a boost in the automotive and construction industries, that will further drive product demand.

Blast furnace will witness over 3% CAGR by the end of 2026 in market size. Rapidly increasing blast furnace capacity, especially in Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam, to improve domestic capacity is anticipated to augment the segment penetration. Balling disc technology provides a uniform size of iron ore pellets that are compact in design. This factor is likely to propel its usage in the pelletizing of iron ores. However, balling drum technologies are likely to have a significant share in the overall industry owing to their capability of high production output.

Based on the application, steel production will remain dominant with over 95% share in market size. The region is ramping up the production activities of steel commodities owing to the rapid development in urban infrastructure, the housing market, and increasing exports. Self-sufficiency reforms in steel manufacturing from many Asian and ASEAN countries to reduce dependency on imports are further anticipated to provide an opportunistic scenario for iron ore pellets.

Electric arc furnace steelmaking technology is set to witness over 4.5% CAGR as it offers excellent metallurgical control together with achieving low carbon emission. The aforementioned factors are likely to propel the market to upgrade existing facilities or potentially expand operations using electric arc technology. Iron ore pellets based on hematite are likely to have a significant share in the market size owing to lower particle attrition rate and high specific gravity. Furthermore, this type of source is abundantly available across the region, which may act as a growth catalyst in the industry expansion.

Traveling grate process is likely to account for over 65% share in the market. This process has mainly been used for the pelletizing operation of hematite ores in the past few years. Grate kiln is also gaining considerable attention in iron ore pellets industry due to its greater flexibility over the traveling grate process.

The major players propelling the industry are TATA Steel, Vale, Mitsubishi Corporation, Kobe Steel, AM/NS, Sumimoto Metal Mining Co., Ltd., and several others.