After ticking up in January, crude steel output in Italy increased again in February by 1.6% year-on-year to slightly over 2 million tonnes. Output also went up over the first two months of the year, by 1.2% y-o-y to 3.9 mt, according to data issued by local steelmakers association Federacciai.
However, flat production decreased again in February by 4.5% to 891,000t, and by 0.8% to 1.8mt over the period January-February, compared to the same period last year. Conversely, long production soared last month by 8.9% to 1.1 mt y-o-y and by 7.3% reaching 2.1mt in January-February, Federacciai says.
The significantly reduced output from the Taranto steelworks of ArcelorMittal Italia is contributing to the current Italian coils shortage situation, responsible for pushing coils prices up by €30/tonne ($35) on average every ten days over the past weeks (see Kallanish passim).
In full-year 2020, Italian crude steel production was 20.4mt, down 11.9% compared to 2019. Long output fell by 9.5% to 11.1mt. Flats production fell by 15.9% to 9.5mt, Federacciai says.
Natalia Capra France
