A record volume of imports has taken up a bigger slice of the pie, leaving less for U.S. steelmakers, but the pie has gotten smaller, too.

Global steel demand is expected to fall by 1.7 percent this year, largely because China couldn't sustain its pace of breakneck economic growth and is consuming less steel for cars, bridges and infrastructure projects.

North American demand is also weak, projected to drop by 2.7 percent for the year.

Demand for steel around the globe grew at an anemic pace of 0.7 percent last year, and the industry still lags from the Great Recession, World Steel Association Chairman Wolfgang Eder said.

"We have not seen a real recovery from 2008 to 2009, since the crisis," he said. "Since then, there's never been a global recovery."

The current conditions are a "consequence of the crisis," he said.

"We have a situation in some parts of the world where general growth is coming under pressure, and that has an effect on steel consumption," Eder said. "We expect very clearly one or two years of reduced consumption."

The industry may restructure around the world during that period, and growth would take place in 2017 and 2018, Eder said. Growth in China has slowed from double digits to about 7 percent a year. It's a major impact on the industry since China made and consumed more steel at any point in time than any other country in the history of the world over about the last decade. An estimated 47 percent of the world's steel is now made and consumed on mainland China.

"It is clear that the steel industry has, for the time being, reached the end of a major growth cycle, which was based on the rapid economic development of China," said Hans Jurgen Kerkoff, World Trade Association economics committee chairman. "Combined with China's slowdown we also face low investment, financial market turbulence and geopolitical conflicts in many developing regions."

There is now slow growth in the industry. It will "last for the time it takes for other developing regions of sufficient size and strength to produce another growth cycle," Kerkoff said.

Demand has peaked in China, but the global industry is still on a growth track, said Edwin Bassoon, World Steel Association general director. Steel consumption worldwide is expected to grow from 1.513 billion tons this year to 1.523 billion in 2016, and that accounts for the production capacity of several major mills.

The outlook is for 0.7 percent growth in the global steel industry next year. Demand in North America is expected to grow by 2.1 percent in 2016.

In the United States, demand has been driven by automakers who are on pace to produce 17 million units this year, Nucor Chief Executive Officer John Ferriola said. They are now projected to make a record 17.6 million vehicles next year.

Non-residential construction, another big end use of steel, rebounded and is growing at a surprising pace, Ferriola said.

The steel industry's current low-growth cycle could last another two or three years, Kerkoff said. He forecasts headwinds will moderate next year if the Chinese economy stabilizes as expected.

"It will be a challenging period," he said.