Austrian steelmaker Voestalpine's CEO Wolfgang Eder has called on European politicians to help come up with a plan to cut capacity in Europe's ailing steel industry in a controlled way, to avoid having to prop up the sector with government bailouts, as reported by Reuters news agency.
According to Mr. Eder, who is also president of the European steel association Eurofer, European steel production is unlikely to ever return to pre-crisis levels following a collapse in the building industry and dwindling demand from carmakers. He went on to state, "The steel industry could fall back into the mistake of the 1980s, in which it would demand subsidies and keep obsolete plants running for social and political reasons. The experience we made then was catastrophic."
The Eurofer president added, "I would advocate using the self-correction powers of the market in a controlled way. That means we would need an industrial-political signal from Brussels that the steel industry should work on a plan to match capacity with current demand."