Europe's largest steel producing country Germany will likely produce less crude steel this year than expected as the euro zone debt crisis creeps its way into the real economy, as Reuters reports.
"Crude steel production in 2011 will tentatively be below the forecast level of 45.5 million mt but will exceed the previous year's volume of 43.8 million mt" German Steel Federation (WV Stahl) president Hans Juergen Kerkhoff stated. He added, "In the past few weeks business in the steel industry has become bleak, mainly due to the euro zone debt crisis."
Mr. Kerkhoff stated that he expects German demand for rolled steel products for next year to grow by 1.5 percent, but said he was unable to provide an outlook for crude steel output.
Kerkhoff said that, contrary to the normal business cycle, new orders of German steelmakers have not recovered from the usual summer lull and were down six percent year on year in September.
In the third quarter, new orders of German steel producers were at around the same level as in the same period last year at 8.76 million mt, he said. The order backlog has been declining since mid-year, and while it was up eight percent year on year in the third quarter, it had shrunk six percent from the second quarter, he added.
"The steel industry...is experiencing the consequences of uncertainty in the markets, which has arisen due to the continuing worsening of the debt crisis," Kerkhoff said.