At a press conference held on June 14 in Milan, the Italian steel producers' association Federacciai commented on the situation in the Italian steel industry in the early months of 2011.
In January-April, Italian steel production rose 8.4 percent year on year, a performance above the European average, although the volume was still 16.3 percent short of the results achieved before the global financial crisis.
Giuseppe Pasini, president of Federacciai, stated, "The Italian steel industry has begun to march forward, even if at different speeds. At the moment, we are recording a good performance in special steel and stainless steel, fed by the recovery of the mechanical sector and exports, yet there is also a worrying stagnation in construction products caused by the weakness in the construction sector."
According to the Federacciai official, "The support and efforts of Italian and EU governments are required to initiate far-sighted programs that will allow our companies to compete in the future with countries in the East and in South America," especially because the industry has been affected by "too many delays and weaknesses in energy, environmental and infrastructure measures compared with our competitors."
Pasini continued, "For the steel sector, 2010 was a year of recovery in production volumes and this recovery was also confirmed in early 2011." In particular, in the first quarter of 2011, flat products (automotive, household appliances, shipbuilding, etc.) grew by 26.3 percent over the same period of 2010, while long products (used in infrastructure, civil and industrial construction, etc.). increased by just 7.4 percent. Concerning the external trade balance, in the first quarter Italy imported about five million mt of steel (+25.4 percent year on year) and exported 4.39 million mt (+16.2 percent year on year).
Pasini concluded, "We are optimistic and we think we will be able to reach output of 30 million mt this year, representing a growth of 20 percent compared with 2010, and which is the goal we had set before the crisis in 2008."