Italian customs have reported a very strong growth trend in imports of stainless steel flat products for the first four months of the current year. In the period in question, total stainless steel flat imports reached 211,702 mt, compared to 327,042 for the whole of last year.
Breaking the January-April 2007 figure down into its main categories, cold rolled stainless imports totaled 146,507 mt, hot rolled reached 59,538 mt, while slab imports came to 5,657 mt.
The main suppliers of stainless steel flat products to Italy in the January-April period were South Korea with 68,004 mt, China with 50,472 mt, Taiwan with 36,840 mt and South Africa with 19,739 mt.