Metal products: Chokepoints and risks
Fabricators making castings, forgings, tubes, fasteners and cans from steel and metals
Chokepoints and risks
- Steel concentration: China made about 961 Mt of the 1,849 Mt of crude steel in 2025, so its exports and trade remedies swing prices worldwide1.
- Alloying elements such as chromium, nickel and molybdenum come from a handful of countries.
- Fragmentation: about 85% of India's foundries are small-scale, limiting automation and export quality2.
- Carbon border taxes such as the EU CBAM raise costs for coal-based steel and the parts made from it.
- Cyclical demand from vehicles and construction drives sharp swings in utilisation.