Southeast Europe steel output increases significantly in January

Southeast Europe (SEE) crude steel production increased significantly in January, according to the latest worldsteel data monitored by Kallanish. Regional output amounted to 417,000 tonnes, up by 28.6% year-on-year.

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 132,000t in January, down by 2.3% on-year.

The second-largest producer in the region was Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose crude steel output was more by 8.2% to 75,000t.

Third-largest steel producer Slovenia saw production of 60,000t, up by 1.8%.

Fourth-largest Moldova saw its crude steel output skyrocket by 321.7% to 45,000t, compared to 10,670t in January 2020.

However, the fifth-largest steel producer, Bulgaria, produced 40,000t, down by 20% y-o-y.

Sixth-largest North Macedonia produced 35,000t in January compared with no production in January 2020.

SEE crude steel production fell in 2020, according to worldsteel data. Regional output amounted to 6.495 million tonnes, down by 15.3% year-on-year (see Kallanish passim).

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, the Serbian and Bulgarian economies navigated through 2020 in an admirably resilient fashion, ING bank previously commented.

Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria