Speaking at the "New Horizons in Global Steel Markets" 9th Annual Conference organized by SteelOrbis in Istanbul on November 28, Jeroen Vermeij, director of market analysis and economic studies at the European Steel Association (Eurofer), spoke about the association's forecasts for 2014 and the coming year.
Mr. Vermeij stated that output growth of steel using sectors in the European Union (EU) is expected to be 2.6 percent in 2015, including two percent growth in the construction sector and three percent growth in the automotive sector, both on year-on-year basis. "The output growth rate of the construction sector this year is expected to be 1.8 percent, while we expect a higher growth for next year, driven by the residential sector. In the automotive sector, we expect to close this year with 4.5 percent growth and to continue to see a rebound at a slower rate in 2015, as producers have almost reached full capacity," Mr. Vermeij said.
The Eurofer official went on to state that EU steel demand will increase by 2.6 percent this year and by 2.5 percent in 2015, while aggressively priced steel imports are gaining a greater market share in the region. He also stressed that domestic mills in the EU have started to lose their market share in domestic and traditional export markets, while unfair trade from third countries is a key threat, with import pressure exacerbating overcapacity problems in the region.