EU apparent steel consumption grew 3.1 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2016, according to the Economic and Steel Market Outlook 2016-2017/Q3 2016 Report from the Economic Committee of the European Steel Association (EUROFER). Improving business activity at the end-user level and inventories in the downstream steel supply chain having been trimmed down at the end of 2015 fuelled steel demand, EUROFER said.
The report stated that the EU pricing and supply conditions remained supportive to the purchasing behavior of EU steel buyers; bookings have reportedly remained at overall satisfactory levels. The outlook for the second half of this year is for apparent consumption to stabilize at around the level of one year earlier. According to EUROFER, while real steel demand is expected to continue its pattern of moderate growth, the seasonal stock cycle suggests that inventories will be reduced gradually over this period.
EUROFER expects apparent steel demand to rise by around one percent in 2016 and by two percent in 2017.