South Korean steelmakers are likely to face business struggles in the upcoming year as steel demand in China, which uses nearly half of all the steel produced worldwide, is expected to slow down, a report said Tuesday.

“There was a market shock for the global steel industry this year, so much so that it could be referred to as the so-called ‘China Shock’,” said a report compiled by POSRI, the research arm of South Korean steel giant POSCO. “This shock will continue next year, and the effect this China Shock will have on the global steel market will likely be even bigger.”

The growth rate for China’s steel demand is estimated to edge up 0.8 percent in 2015, a relatively low figure compared to that of the whole world, which came to 2 percent, according to statistics by the World Steel Association.

Others have also put out similar numbers, with China’s Metallurgical Industrial Planning and Research Institute estimating next year’s steel demand to increase a mere 1.4 percent in China. Steel market information provider World Steel Dynamics even forecast that demand will decrease by 3.6 percent on-year.

In contrast, the world’s No. 2 economy has been expanding its steel exports, which jumped 42 percent on-year to 74 million tons in the January-October period, according to the report.

Outgoing shipments of steel from South Korea, on the other hand, have gone up 11.6 percent on-year to 23.88 million tons in the first nine months of the year.

“Unless countries like India or North Korea begin a large-scale economic development, this year might be the last time for the South Korean steel industry to see its exports thrive,” said Park Yeon-ju, an analyst at Daewoo Securities Co.