According to the Economic and Steel Market Outlook 2017-2018/Q2 2017 Report from the Economic Committee of the European Steel Association (EUROFER), EU steel tube output grew by two percent in 2016, despite a slowdown in the year-on-year growth rate of production in the fourth quarter of 2016. The sharpest rise in production was recorded in Germany and France. In the first quarter of the current year, tube production activity is estimated to have risen by 4.1 percent year on year.
The EUROFER report indicated that demand from the line pipe market segment rebounded in the second quarter of 2016 owing to the Nord Stream 2 project, but also the other tube market segments, including the automotive sector, construction and wind energy, have performed rather satisfactorily recently.
According to EUROFER, prospects for the tube industry in 2017 and 2018 are overall moderately positive. Global pipeline project activity is expected to remain at a healthy level. Demand from the automotive industry, construction, metal goods and mechanical engineering sector is foreseen to remain on a mildly rising trend; this will support demand for smaller welded tubes, hollow sections and seamless tubes.
Total EU output is expected to increase by 2.7 percent in this year and by 1.6 percent in 2018, both year on year.