According to the Italian steel producers' association Federacciai, in the first nine months of the current year Italy's steel exports to European Union (EU) countries reached 9.506 million metric tons, up by 1.9 percent, while its steel imports from EU countries totaled 6.142 million metric tons, down 7.9 percent, both compared to the same period of 2011.
IIn Italy’s steel trade with other EU countries, in January-September this year positive year-on-year comparisons were only observed for flat steel products, up by 0.9 percent and 7.9 percent for flat steel imports and exports respectively. The details of Italy’s steel trade with the European Union in the January-September period of the current year are as follows:
| Products | Imports EU | Exports EU | Balance EU | |||||
| Jan-Sept 2011 | Jan-Sept 2012 | Change (%) | Jan-Sept 2011 | Jan-Sept 2012 | Change (%) | Jan-Sept 2011 | Jan-Sept 2012 | |
| Ingots and semi-finished products | 525 | 327 | -37.7 | 481 | 420 | -12,7 | -44 | 93 |
| Long products | 1,343 | 1,051 | -21.7 | 1,566 | 1,482 | -5,4 | 223 | 431 |
| Flat products | 4,011 | 4,046 | 0.9 | 4,392 | 4,740 | 7,9 | 381 | 694 |
| 1st manufacturing products (*) | 684 | 620 | -9.4 | 2,755 | 2,734 | -0,8 | 2,071 | 2,114 |
| 2nd manufacturing products (**) | 104 | 98 | -5.8 | 135 | 130 | -3,7 | 31 | 32 |
| Total | 6,667 | 6,142 | -7.9 | 9,329 | 9,506 | 1.9 | 2,662 | 3,364 |
(*) Seamless pipes, welded pipes, forged bars, cold drawn sections and bars, drawn wire, cold rolled strips, welded sections, drawn wire.
(**) Flanges, pipe fittings, mining sections, diamond plates, pig iron powder
Units of measurement are thousand metric tons