Italian exports fall, China-origin imports surge in 2022

Italian apparent steel consumption decreased by 4.5% year-on-year in 2022 to 29 million tonnes, Italian steelmakers association Federacciai says in its annual report obtained by Kallanish.

Shipments on the domestic market reached 25.3mt, down 10.1% y-o-y. “The slowdown of activity at domestic producers was partly affected by the sluggish trend in exports to 10.4mt, down overall by 10.8% (-1.3mt),” the report states.

Italian exports to EU27 countries last year decreased by 8.4% to 10.3mt after the peak registered in 2021. Exports to non-EU countries stood at almost 1.7mt, marking an on-year drop of 21.7%.

Last year, Germany was the largest market, buying 2.4mt of Italian steel, down 13.9% y-o-y. Romania also bought 21.5% less compared to the previous year and Austrian purchases decreased 9.5%. Italian exports to Canada fell remarkably, from 158,000t in 2021 to 14,000t in 2022, and declined to Turkey by 29.5% to 262,000t. Sales to the US however increased by 22.4% to 179,000t.

In 2022, the country’s total imports stood at 18.7mt, falling by only 2.5% on 2021. Imports from the EU27 decreased by 2.1% to 8.6mt. From third countries they fell by 2.8% to 10.2mt. Intake from France increased by 6.7% to 1.9mt last year. France was where Italy procured most of its steel, followed by Germany that shipped 1.8mt to Italy last year, a remarkable 18.2% decline.

Among third countries, Ukraine showed the biggest decline in steel shipments to Italy, supplying 459,000t, down from 2.2mt in 2021. In 2021, Italy bought from China 597,000t. The figure increased three-fold last year to 1.5mt.

Natalia Capra France

 

German construction outlook deteriorates after already weak quarter

Orders at German construction companies in the first quarter were 18% lower than in the corresponding 2022 period, according to their association, Hauptverband der Deutschen Bauindustrie (Bauindustrie).

The year-on-year dip was especially pronounced for residential construction, at nearly 40%, which could not be balanced by commercial or public projects, says Bauindustrie managing director Tim-Oliver Müller. The drop in orders foreshadows a drop in revenue, which in the first quarter was already 8% down year-on-year.

Although the high order backlogs built up in previous years had a stabilising effect, these are melting down rapidly. “The traditional spring revival in construction has failed to materialise this year,” Müller says.

Companies were correspondingly pessimistic about the coming 12 months: 35% of the construction companies surveyed in a recent poll expected their business situation to deteriorate. House construction companies were especially pessimistic, at 43%. Only 8% of companies polled expected an improvement.

The lull in construction was an issue debated at Kallanish’s recent European Steel Markets conference in Amsterdam. “Our German customers in the construction market are very worried, and the Netherlands as well,” said Friso de Vries, managing director of Vogel Stahl, a distributor on the German-Dutch border.

A buyer at a rebar bending shop puts it more drastically: “I am not getting ‘few’ orders, I am getting none.” Consequently, he has suspended purchases of rebar for many weeks.

Christian Koehl Germany