During the annual meeting of the Italian steel producers' association Federacciai held in Milan on June 28, association president Giuseppe Pasini told the attendees, including Italian government representatives and EU officials, that 2009 had been a really tough year for the global steel industry, with steel production down 8.1 percent year on year to 1.19 billion metric tons. EU-27 steel output went down by 30 percent year on year, while Italy's output decreased by 35 percent year on year, Mr. Pasini said. In this context, the Federacciai president said that strong intervention by the Italian government is needed in order to ensure the competitiveness of domestic steelmakers.
The crisis had a significant impact on Italy's unemployment rate, Mr. Pasini went on to say, though underlining that there were no job losses among the 65,000 direct and indirect employees of enterprises which are members of Federacciai.
Commenting on the current year, the Federacciai president said that in the first four months of 2010 global steel production witnessed a significant 31.8 percent increase on year-on-year basis, with Italy posting a 37.8 percent rise. Pasini continued, "However, these data have to be considered with caution, as we must take into account the huge growth of China, which has had a very fast recovery from the financial crisis. We know that half of the global steel output comes from China. As regards the Italian situation, we have to note that while flats steel output has risen by 69 percent, longs production has only increased by 8.7 percent, with rebar output down by 21.8 percent. We can say that the Italian steel industry is recovering, but at a slower rate compared to other European countries."