Spain’s steel exports slip in 2019: Unesid

The Spanish steel sector saw exports slightly decrease year-on-year in 2019. These were impacted by the slowing of shipments to certain countries, says local steelmakers’ association Unesid in its latest report monitored by Kallanish.

“The deceleration was in line with that observed in the rest of the countries in the European Union. Germany, Italy and France have registered even lower volumes of shipments in 2019, which gave us an indication of the competitiveness of Spanish exports,” Unesid says.

During 2019, Spanish steel shipments fell by -2% y-o-y to 9.5 million tonnes. Long steel exports comprised 55% of this total, while flat products represented 29%. Exports of semi-finished steel, including tube and pipe, amounted to 16%.

In terms of volume, Spain reported a substantial decrease in six of its ten main export destinations, which made up 75.7% of the country’s overall steel shipments. 12-month steel exports to Italy fell by -7% y-o-y to 952,000t, while shipments to Germany declined -14% to 637,000t. Spain also saw its steel shipments to the UK and Belgium reduce by -5% and -15%, respectively to 667,000t and 349,000t, Unesid data show.

Deliveries to Morocco were 413,000t or -4% down, while the US absorbed 241,000t of Spanish overall steel shipments, -26% down on 2018.

Exports to France, however, rose by 3% to 1,844,000t. Shipments to Portugal, Algeria and Turkey were also up. The Portuguese market imported 1,158,000t (+10%) of Spanish steel products, while the Algerian and Turkish markets took 472,000t and 469,000t, respectively. Both of the latter volumes represented an increase of 2% on-year, Unesid adds.  

Spain was the world’s 17th largest steel producer in 2019. Spanish crude steel output reached 13,581,000t, down -5.2% on-year, according to worldsteel data.