Drivers and Growth of Nigerian Stainless Steel Pipes Market

In the last decade, global steel industry has been growing in line with various macro and micro indices, especially in third world countries where infrastructure and construction agenda are paramount to the political and business leaders. Like other segments of the industry, stainless steel pipe section is equally developing since 2014. According to a recent report, global stainless steel would worth $133.8 billion in the 7 years (2025). The worth would be reached at a 5.2% Compound Annual Growth Rate. One of the earlier market reports on the industry indicates that the stainless steel pipes and tubes market is expected to exhibit a sustainable growth of over 3.55% between 2017 and 2022.

Key Drivers of the Market

Many factors have surfaced revealing the reasons behind the market growth throughout the world. The market is being driven by the increase in energy demand and production of vehicles. In addition to this driver, the stainless steel market is expanding due to massive construction of major infrastructure such as architectural cladding, handrails, drainage and water systems, wall support, roofing, and structures and fixing. Analysts have equally pointed investment in water supply and desalination projects for growth of the market. “Growing demand for stainless steel in applications such as wires, rolled rings, precision tubes, strips, and 3D forging is anticipated to drive the stainless steel market for the next five years.”

Industries using Stainless Steel Pipes

Building and construction, heavy, automotive and transportation, consumer goods among others are the industries that need stainless steel pipes. For instance, massive production of cars and vehicles earned the market a remarkable growth in 2015. During the year, global automotive stainless steel tube was $3.37 million and expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.9% by 2024. The growth of the section has been hinged on the essence of having good corrosion resistance and dent performance of the vehicle in addition to the expected high durability.
United Kingdom, Indonesia, Belgium, Sweden, Italy, United States, Austria, Spain, Germany, France, Canada, Taiwan, South Korea, the Netherlands and Finland are the 15 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of stainless steel in 2017. The existing statistics indicates that the 15 countries exported stainless steel worth $2,032,000, 000.40 during the year, exporting 94.3% of global stainless steel exports. With $520.7 million, the United Kingdom had the highest export value, followed by Indonesia which earned $425.4 million.

Stainless Steel Consumption in Nigeria

Information from the government indicates that Nigeria spends $3.3 billion every year on importation of steel products. Nigeria needs to consume steel for varied purposes. The reasons for the consumption include growth in construction and real estate, manufacturing industries, among others and governments’ massive investments in infrastructural development across the country. From December, 2014 to May, 2015, information reveals that Nigeria imported iron and steel worth N354.45 billion. The same information indicates that N234.96 billion worth of iron and steel was imported from January to September, 2016. For the year 2015, stainless steel was among the steel imported into the country.

Over the last five years, Nigeria has been importing stainless steel from China, one of the top importing countries, for domestic and industrial uses. In 2017, Nigeria’s imports were mainly Ingots, semi-finished products of stainless steel and finished stainless steel pipes worth $4.4 million, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.

For the importation of HS 730441000 stainless steel pipes into Nigeria, there is no information that points to the fact that the product has been imported or being imported into the country. Specifically, check regarding the product on the Nigeria Customs Service and National Bureau of Statistics did not yield desired results.  This establishes that the manufacturers of the product need to initiate action-oriented strategic communications activities towards the brand recognition and acceptability in the country.