Steel and oil overcapacity could damage steel innovation

For all the talk of lightweight materials and alternative energy vehicles, the automotive industry’s dependence on the steel and oil industries still can’t be understated – and now both are facing the toughest challenges they’ve seen since the last global financial crisis. In January 2016, iron ore fell to below US$40 per tonne. A year earlier, this figure stood at US$68 per tonne, and in 2011, the figure was US$190 per tonne. Similarly, both Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate (WTI), crude oil types used as benchmarks in global oil pricing, dropped to a 13-year low at the start of January 2016.