Italy’s apparent consumption of primary steel products continued the decline in 2024 that has been underway since 2022, mirroring the slowdown in manufacturing, Italian steelmakers association Federacciai says in its annual report obtained by Kallanish.
Apparent consumption fell by 2.1% on-year to 26.1 million tonnes. This level remained close to the decade’s average low, surpassed only by the 2020 level of 23.9mt.
A breakdown by product highlights diverging trends. Consumption of non-alloy and other alloy steels worsened, with a 2.3% decline, reaching 24.7mt. Stainless steel moved differently. After the sharp fall of 2023, when apparent consumption declined to 1.4mt with a 25.8% drop, volumes stabilised in 2024, inching up 0.3%.
Overall, the Federacciai document indicates a deterioration in the performance of domestic producers, partly due to falling exports, while imports were steady. Deliveries from Italian mills fell by 4.7% to 24.1mt, which touched a new decade low.
The contraction in exports was even more pronounced. Total foreign sales fell by 7% to 10.1mt, also marking a ten-year low. The breakdown by destination shows declines. Exports to EU countries, which account for more than 80% of Italy’s external shipments and totalled 8.4mt, fell by 6.6%, while deliveries to non-EU markets declined by 9.2% to 1.7mt.
Import trends moved differently. Total inflows reached 17mt in 2024 and remained in line with 2023 levels, decreasing by 0.8%. This overall stability reflects two opposing trends: imports from EU countries rose to 7.4mt, 1% on-year, while shipments from non-EU suppliers fell to 9.5mt, a 2.1% decline. Despite recording a third consecutive annual drop since 2022, non-EU origins continued to account for more than 55% of total Italian imports.
For the first time in the past decade, trade with Germany, Italy’s main import and export partner, moved into deficit due to a sharp fall in exports to Germany, which dropped by 13.2% on-year to 1.9mt, a level below that of 2020. German shipments into Italy however increased 5.3% to 1.9mt.
On the import side, India continued to expand its presence in the Italian market. With a 4.4% increase, Indian shipments reached 1.9mt last year, the highest level of the decade, confirming India as Italy’s second-largest source of steel imports in 2024. Turkey also recorded a strong surge, doubling its exports to Italy from 511,000t in 2023 to 1.1mt in 2024.
For exports, there was year-on-year stability. All of Italy’s top ten destination markets were EU member states.
In 2024, apparent consumption of long products reached 9.4mt, unchanged from the previous year. Flat products consumption fell by 1.6%. At 14.7mt, demand reached one of the lowest levels of the past decade, affected by the slowdown in the automotive and white goods sectors, the Federacciai report states. The weakening of consumption hit both non-alloy and other alloy steels as well as stainless products.
Natalia Capra France
