Fitch Ratings: Modest recovery in Global steel market in 2026 amid high protectionism

Fitch Ratings expects a modest recovery in the global steel market in 2026, tempered by high protectionism. Trade barriers are redirecting flows and keeping regional price gaps unusually wide, so where steel is made increasingly matters as much as how much is made. For India, the call implies gradually better export conditions but a market in which duties, quotas and safeguards — not just demand — decide who sells where. Alloy and ore suppliers should read it as steadier volumes with persistent regional distortion.