EU - Eurofer: Rising Steel Imports in Eu Threaten Steel Mills

Steel imports continue to rise in the EU, which threatens lower incomes to European steelmakers. The conclusion was made by the European Steel Association Eurofer after analysing statistical data over eight months of 2014. According to Eurofer, finished steel imports in the EU increased

21% y-o-y in Jnauary-August. In Q1 2014 the figure grew by 6% y-o-y, while in Q2 – by as much as 33%. The situation in longs and flats segments is different: the increase in the former was 49%, while in the latter – just 15%. “Currently longs consumption is higher, especially now when construction has revived in many European countries. The main flats consumers – automotive companies prefer to work with European suppliers citing higher quality of their products,” a European trading company representative reported to Metal Expert.

The growth of imports outpaces the rise in steel apparent consumption in Europe substantially, the latter being just 5.5% in H1 2014, according to Eurofer. Steel demand over the whole 2014 will hardly increase more than 3.5% y-o-y. “That’s why we so much worry about growing steel imports in the EU. Huge volumes of cheap imports in the EU eat up the margin of local producers whose positions are already weak enough because of the crisis,” Axel Eggert, Eurofer’s Director General ad interim, commented.