Steel: Relationships

Every element and industry that Steel is linked to, and how. Each pair has its own card explaining the relationships between the two.

Nickel: Stainless steel takes about two-thirds of the world's nickel, so stainless output in China and Indonesia sets nickel demand, while carbon steel, most of all steel, uses almost none and its price barely tracks nickel. (researched)
Offshore wind: Offshore wind is built largely of heavy steel plate: monopile foundations alone take around 200 t per MW, and foundations and towers were put at about a quarter of capital cost in 2021. That makes the industry a major plate customer and exposed to steel and supply chain inflation, as the 2023 cancellations showed. (researched)
Transformers and power electronics: Most transformer cores are built from grain-oriented electrical steel (CRGO or GOES), a speciality grade made by few mills that is about a fifth of a transformer's cost. India imports most of what it uses, so CRGO supply and trade rules directly affect how fast it can expand its grid. (researched)
Vanadium: Steel is both vanadium's main customer and, in China, its main source: a few hundred grams per tonne strengthens rebar, and most Chinese vanadium is recovered from the slag of iron made from vanadium-bearing ore, so steel output drives demand and supply at once. (researched)
Cement: Granulated blast furnace slag from ironmaking is ground into GGBS and slag cement to replace clinker, and both materials depend on construction demand; in India, JSW Steel's slag feeds JSW Cement, the largest GGBS maker. (researched)
Coking coal: Blast furnace steel needs roughly 800 kg of coal per tonne, most of it as coke, so coking coal demand rises and falls with blast furnace output; India imports about 90 to 95% of its coking coal, with Australia the largest supplier. (researched)
Electric motors and drives: Every electric motor's magnetic core is a stack of thin non-oriented electrical steel, and the quality of that steel sets a large part of the motor's energy losses. It is a specialised grade made by few mills, so its supply and price follow their own cycle rather than the general steel market. (researched)
Electrical equipment: Electrical equipment needs ordinary steel for tanks, frames and transmission towers, but its critical link is grain-oriented electrical steel (CRGO) for transformer cores, which India makes in tiny volumes and imports for about 90% of its needs. (researched)
Graphite: Electric arc furnaces melt scrap with synthetic graphite electrodes that burn away at about 1.7 kg per tonne of steel, so electrode demand tracks EAF output rather than steel prices; India's HEG is among the world's largest electrode makers and Graphite India is another major producer. (researched)
Hydrochloric acid: Steel mills use hydrochloric acid to pickle hot-rolled strip before cold rolling and coating, making steel one of the main outlets for an acid that is mostly a by-product of chlorine chemistry. Large mills regenerate up to 99.5% of their acid, so merchant demand comes mainly from smaller pickling lines. (researched)
Iron ore: Iron ore exists almost only to make steel: a blast furnace tonne needs about 1.4 tonnes of ore, scrap-based arc furnaces need very little, and India both feeds its own mills and exports low-grade fines mostly to China. (researched)
Molybdenum: Steel is molybdenum's main market: about four-fifths of newly mined molybdenum (2022 data) goes into stainless, alloy and tool steels and cast iron, where it adds strength and corrosion resistance and has few good substitutes. (researched)
Natural gas: Natural gas can replace coke as the agent that strips oxygen from iron ore, in direct reduced iron (DRI) plants that feed electric furnaces and emit about half the CO2 of a blast furnace. About two thirds of world DRI is gas-based, but India, the largest DRI producer, makes most of its DRI from coal, and the same gas-based shaft furnaces can later switch to hydrogen. (researched)
Oxygen: Steelmaking is one of the largest industrial uses of oxygen: each tonne of converter steel needs about 55 to 60 cubic metres of high-purity oxygen, mostly made in air separation plants at the steelworks. Because the gas is made on site under long contracts, the tie is physical and operational rather than a traded price link, as India saw in 2021 when steel plants were called on to supply medical oxygen. (researched)
Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft: Steel makes up most of a car's body and chassis and the hulls of ships and bogies of trains, so vehicle makers are among the largest buyers of flat and plate steel. The contest is now over grade and carbon: thinner high-strength steel against aluminium, and low-carbon steel at a premium. (researched)
Zinc: Galvanising, coating steel with zinc so the zinc corrodes first, takes about 60% of the world's zinc, so zinc demand follows output of steel that must resist corrosion, while zinc is a large share of a galvaniser's cost. (researched)
Construction and infrastructure: Construction and infrastructure are India's biggest steel users, about 60% of finished steel in FY26, through rebar in concrete and sections in bridges, towers and frames, so steel prices feed straight into project and housing costs. (researched)
Machinery and equipment: Machinery relies heavily on steel, from tractor chassis to bearings and motor laminations, and took about 16% of the world's steel in 2019, so steel prices and India's steel import duties feed straight into machinery makers' costs and margins. (researched)
Tin: Tinplate, thin steel coated with a few grams of tin per square metre, ties the two metals in food and drink cans: it is a sizeable use for tin but a small one for steel, and chromium-coated steel and aluminium are steadily taking its place. (researched)
AC transmission: AC transmission needs steel; their prices have moved together.
Energy-intensive industry: Energy-intensive industry needs steel; their prices have moved together.
Gas pipelines and city gas: Gas pipelines and city gas needs steel; their prices have moved together.
Generators and alternators: Generators and alternators needs steel; their prices have moved together.
Oil and product pipelines: Oil and product pipelines needs steel; their prices have moved together.
Onshore wind: Onshore wind needs steel; their prices have moved together.
Steam turbines and thermal power plants: Steam turbines and thermal power plants needs steel; their prices have moved together.
Waste-heat power (steam Rankine): Waste-heat power (steam Rankine) needs steel; their prices have moved together.
AI and digital platforms: AI and digital platforms depends on steel.
Abrasives: Their prices have moved together.
Advanced geothermal: Their prices have moved together.
Aerospace and defence: Aerospace and defence depends on steel.
Apparel and footwear: Apparel and footwear depends on steel.
Argon: Their prices have moved together.
Biomass combustion and CHP: Their prices have moved together.
Boiler heat recovery: Their prices have moved together.
Boilers, furnaces and stoves: Their prices have moved together.
Building materials: Building materials depends on steel.
Coal transport: Their prices have moved together.
Combustion road vehicles: Their prices have moved together.
Computers and electronics: Computers and electronics depends on steel.
Conventional oil and gas production: Their prices have moved together.
Crushed stone: Their prices have moved together.
Data centres and cloud: Data centres and cloud depends on steel.
Distribution grids, mini-grids and interconnectors: Their prices have moved together.
E-commerce and digital marketplaces: E-commerce and digital marketplaces depends on steel.
Education and research: Education and research depends on steel.
Electric heating: Their prices have moved together.
Embodied energy trade: Embodied energy trade needs steel.
Food and beverage processing: Food and beverage processing depends on steel.
Furniture: Furniture depends on steel.
Geothermal power plants: Their prices have moved together.
Healthcare services: Healthcare services depends on steel.
Heat exchangers and pinch integration: Their prices have moved together.
Heat pumps, air conditioning and refrigeration: Their prices have moved together.
Hospitality and tourism: Hospitality and tourism depends on steel.
Hydrogen: Their prices have moved together.
Hydropower dams: Their prices have moved together.
Internal combustion engines and gensets: Their prices have moved together.
Mechanical power transmission: Their prices have moved together.
Media and entertainment: Media and entertainment depends on steel.
Medical devices: Medical devices depends on steel.
Metal products: Metal products depends on steel.
Nuclear fission reactors: Their prices have moved together.
Paper and packaging: Paper and packaging depends on steel.
Plastic and rubber products: Plastic and rubber products depends on steel.
Professional services: Professional services depends on steel.
Public administration, defence and security: Public administration, defence and security depends on steel.
Rail traction: Their prices have moved together.
Real estate: Real estate depends on steel.
Recuperators and regenerators: Their prices have moved together.
Run-of-river and small hydro: Their prices have moved together.
Semiconductors: Semiconductors depends on steel.
Ship propulsion: Their prices have moved together.
Small, airborne and traditional wind: Their prices have moved together.
Steel plant energy recovery: Steel plant energy recovery needs steel.
Tankers, barges and fuel trucks: Their prices have moved together.
Telecommunications: Telecommunications depends on steel.
Textiles and leather: Textiles and leather depends on steel.
Timber: Their prices have moved together.
Transport and logistics: Transport and logistics depends on steel.
Waste and recycling: Waste and recycling depends on steel.
Water and sanitation: Water and sanitation depends on steel.
Wholesale and retail trade: Wholesale and retail trade depends on steel.
Wood products: Wood products depends on steel.