According to the figures in the 2010 annual report issued by the Italian steel producers' association Federacciai, the economic crisis of recent years appears to have resulted in a shift of emphasis in steel production and consumption in Italy. While the country has traditionally focused on production and export of construction steel, after the autumn of 2009 major improvements have been seen in the domestic production and consumption of steel coils, sheets and plates.
In 2010, Italian consumption of long steel reached 10.9 million mt with a 16.2 percent increase. This increase was 10 percentage points lower than the overall average increase in Italian steel consumption in the year in question. Long rolled products also came last in the output growth chart, with their year-on-year increase not exceeding 9.1 percent, rising to 12.2 million mt.
According to these figures and due to the lack of long-haul construction projects in Italy, the domestic long product segment will likely be oriented towards massive export activity. Instead, Federacciai's statistics reveal that long rolled trade balance in 2010 remained positive by just 894,373 mt, compared to 1.530.536 mt in 2009. Meanwhile, the recovery in long steel imports was significant, with imports up 33.2 percent year on year, while export fell 2.8 percent year on year - one of the few negative figures in the overall report.
Italy, long rolled steel (2010) |
||
Output (mt) |
Y-o-y variation (%) |
|
Production |
12,159,000 |
+9.1 |
Apparent consumption |
10,912,076 |
+16.2 |
Import |
2,190,333 |
+33.2 |
Export |
3,084,706 |
-2.8 |
Net exports |
894,373 |
-41.56 |