Italy's hot rolled flat steel output amounted to 929,000 mt in February this year, down 33.7 percent year on year, according to the Italian steel producers association Federacciai. February was the sixth month in a row in which a year-on-year fall in output was recorded.
In the first two months of current year Italy's hot rolled flat steel output totaled 1.847 million metric tons, falling by 31.3 percent or 840,000 mt year on year. The collapse in Italian flat steel output so far in 2013 is directly linked to the halt in production at troubled Italian steel producer Ilva. As reported by SteelOrbis, production at blast furnace No. 1 at Ilva's Taranto steelworks has been halted as of December 8 last year. Ilva had been due to restart its hot rolling mill No. 1 on January 7 but the restart was postponed. According to recent reports, the company may restart its hot rolling mill No. 1 as soon as the seizure of 1.7 million mt of the company's steel products, including around 600,000-700,000 mt of slals, is cancelled by court order.