Italian crude steel production increased by 9.7 percent year on year in August this year to 939,000 mt, according to the latest provisional data released by Federacciai, the Italian steel producers' association. The return to an upward trend after ten consecutive months of declines was determined by the fact that production stoppages by local steelmakers were generally shorter than usual in August this year. As explained by some sources, steel mills took advantage of the usual summer break to "make up for lost time" during the months of March and April when they had been forced to sharply reduce their activities due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Despite the positive figure recorded in August, the cumulative figure remained in negative territory for the January-August period, with a 17 percent decrease year on year to 12.755 million mt.
Looking at the flat and long product categories, in August the production of longs was higher than that of flats, amounting to 487,000 mt, i.e., up 10.7 percent year on year. The output of flats in August totaled 475,000 mt, decreasing by 3.5 percent year on year.
In the first eight months of the current year, the production of longs stood at 6.791 million mt, recording a drop of 16.2 percent compared to the same period of last year, while production of flats amounted to 6.175 million mt, down 20.8 percent year on year.