Real steel consumption in the European Union is forecast to decline almost two percent in 2013, according to the Economic and Steel Market Outlook 2013-2014/Q1 2013 Report from the Economic Committee of the European Steel Association (EUROFER).
In the third quarter of 2012, real consumption of steel in the EU decreased by 5.5 percent compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, while a similar decline is estimated for real consumption in the final quarter of last year. EUROFER said that EU real steel consumption contracted by around five percent in the full year 2012.
EUROFER forecasts that activity in the steel-using sectors in the EU will remain sluggish during the most of the current year, resulting in depressed real steel consumption levels and the continuation of the negative year-on-year trend in consumption.
According to EUROFER, EU real steel consumption is expected to increase by almost two percent in 2014, bringing EU real steel consumption back to the 2010 level which is still 15 percent below 2005.