Fabio Riva, vice president of Italian steelmaker Riva Group, recently discussed the current situation in the local and international steel markets - as reported by Italian news agency AGI.
"2009 was a terrible year for the steel sector. Demand for steel products collapsed, and the financial results of steel companies, including Riva Group, were heavily impacted by the crisis. This year the situation seems to have improved a little, although we cannot say that we have reached a full recovery yet," Mr. Riva stated.
He continued, " Difficulties facing the recovery of the EU steel industry include: 1) the strong increase in raw material prices; 2) the EU's difficulties in determining proper policies which could help its economy to improve; 3) the obstacle which European bureaucracy often represents to local industrial development; 4) the ongoing sluggishness of domestic steel consumption."
Mr. Riva concluded with a note of optimism for the future: "The steel industry [in the EU] is a capital intensive sector, and therefore it is able to deal with the competition from Asia more successfully than other industrial sectors".