Arvedi, the second largest Italian flats producer, has forecast a challenging 2019 on higher energy costs and imports, according to President Giovanni Arvedi. He stressed that the EU safeguards must be reviewed.
“The large number of imports are weighing on the coils sector. Despite the safeguard measures imports increased in Italy by 54% in the first four months of the year compared to the same period in 2018, dragging down prices. The increase in energy costs is also weighing on 2019 due to the rise in the prices of CO2 emission allowances,” Arvedi said.
“In this sense, we hope it will be a revision of the safeguards with the adoption of quotas by country also for hot coils, in order to avoid ‘predatory’ behavior by some non-European steel mills, and the adoption in Europe of a carbon border adjustment on imports of steel products to allow our companies to compete on a fair playing field.”
Arvedi said his company “is in any case fully equipped to face the new competitive challenges…as demonstrated by the recent and important partnership agreement signed with a major American player [US Steel], which invested in our technology (Arvedi ISP/ESP) and in our know-how.”
Arvedi is family-owned company and is not listed, so it just disclosed its 2018 financial results. The company closed last year with an increase of its production by 5% over 2017 to 4.5 million mt. In 2018, revenues went up by 9.5% to Eur 3.13 billion while debt declined by Eur72.7 million.
The company last year invested around Eur110 million — Eur60 million just for the steel plant — completing its Eur1.2 billion investment plan launched in 2007.
— Annalisa Villa
