Italian longs output improves, flats still under pressure

Italian long products output performed slightly better compared to flat products during January-August, according to the latest figures published by local steelmakers association Federacciai.

During the first eight months of the year, longs output reached 6.79 million tonnes, down -16.2% year-on-year; flats production was down almost -21% to 6.17mt, Kallanish notes from Federacciai.

In August alone longs output recovered by over 10% y-o-y, while the production of flat products continued to remain some -3.5% y-o-y below the levels of August 2019. This confirms that the sector has not yet recovered completely following the stops implemented during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Italian crude steel output recovered by almost 10% y-o-y in August to 939,000t, but the overall aggregated figure for January-August remained down -17% y-o-y at 12.7mt, Federacciai reports.