Italy’s steel imports up 30 percent, exports down 20 percent in 2010

According to the statistics released by the Italian steel producers' association Federacciai, in 2010 Italy's steel imports reached 16.385 million metric tons, increasing by 30.5 percent, while its steel exports totaled 15.133 million metric tons, up 21.1 percent, both compared to the 2009 figures.
 
In 2010, Italy's semi-finished steel product imports reached 3.58 million metric tons, up 36.7 percent year on year. Meanwhile, the country's semi-finished steel product exports amounted to 908,000 metric tons, up 59.3 percent year on year.
 
In the given year, Italy's imports of long steel products increased by 33.2 percent to 2.19 million metric tons, while its long steel product exports totaled 3.08 million metric tons, down 2.8 percent, both year on year.
 
On the other hand, in 2010 Italy's flat steel product imports reached 9.26 million metric tons, up 29.4 percent year on year, while its flat steel product exports amounted to 6.48 million metric tons, with a year-on-year increase of 33.1 percent. 

*The unit of measurement of product volumes is million metric tons.
** Products include seamless pipes, welded pipes, forged bars, cold drawn sections and bars, drawn wire and cold rolled strips.
*** Products include steel sections for the mining industry, scaffolding steel materials, accessories for steel pipes, flanges, checkered steel plates and iron powder.