According to the figures released by the Italian steel producers' association Federacciai, in July this year Italian crude steel output decreased by 8.9 percent year on year, totaling 2.402 million metric tons. July is the fourth consecutive month in which a year-on-year fall in output has been seen. In addition, the year-on-year downtrend in crude steel output indicated an acceleration in July, increasing by 1.5 percentage compared to June and rising by 7.1 percentage points compared to May.
In the first seven months of the current year, total Italian crude steel output amounted to 17.266 million mt, down 0.8 percent compared to the same period of 2011. Despite the year-on-year decreases in Italian crude steel production starting from April, the year-to-date output volume has not yet indicated a negative year-on-year variation in the current year.