Southeast Europe (SEE) crude steel production decreased in August, according to the latest worldsteel data monitored by Kallanish. Regional output amounted to 181,559 tonnes, compared with 246,806t in July.
In the first eight months of the year, regional production decreased to almost 2.08 million tonnes from 3.27mt in January-July 2022.
However, worldsteel did not provide data for August steel production in Bosnia or Moldova.
Serbia was again the largest steel producer among the seven countries of SEE, which also include Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, North Macedonia and Moldova.
Serbia’s production of crude steel totalled 1.02mt in January-August, down by 13.4%. The second-largest steel producer in the region, Slovenia, achieved eight-month production of 367,291t, down by 17.6%.
Third-largest producer Bulgaria saw its crude steel output approximately flat at 361,400t. However, fourth-largest North Macedonia did not produce any volumes last month. In January-August it produced 183,587t compared to 157,374t in the same period last year.
Fifth-largest Croatia saw crude steel production at 147,998t, up 11.4%
Earlier, Special steelmaker Slovenian Steel Group (SIJ) resumed full capacity production at its subsidiaries SIJ Metal Ravne and SIJ Ravne Systems after the devastating floods that hit the country at the beginning of August (see Kallanish passim).
In July, SIJ Group suspended production of stainless steel at its SIJ Acroni unit due to an accident at the hot rolling mill (see Kallanish passim). This was expected to impact production for up to three months.
HBIS Group Serbia Iron & Steel restarted blast furnace No.1 in March at its Smederevo works. The enterprise planned to suspend one BF in summer for maintenance.
The Bulgarian Association of Metallurgical Industries (BAMI) warned earlier this year of increased imports into the EU of rebar and light sections of non-alloy and other alloy steels from Egypt and Algeria.
Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria
