During the conference held recently by SteelOrbis in Rezzato (Brescia), Giuseppe Pasini, chairman of Italian steelmakers association Federacciai, illustrated the structural problems that characterize the Italian steel industry, starting from the condition of overcapacity, a problem plaguing in particular the long steel sector. The capacity utilization in the Italian steel industry remains at around 80 percent and it will be difficult to go beyond this threshold in the future.
Based on data reported by the Federacciai chairman, in the first seven months of 2011 Italian steel imports grew by 15.3 percent year on year, surpassing 11,692,000 mt of products. At the same time, exports have increased by 13.6 percent to 10,529,000 mt. In particular, Italian imports have focused mostly on flat products (+17.6 percent year on year) and ingots/semi-finished products (+4.8 percent year on year). Imports of long products amounted to 1.57 million mt, rising by 20.5 percent year on year.
Italian imports, which in 2010 had focused mainly on European Union countries (53 percent of total), in the first seven months of 2011 came primarily from non-EU sources (53 percent).
With regard to exports (of which 73 percent were destined to EU countries), in January-July 2011 flat product exports increased by 19.6 percent, long products exports grew by 7.6 percent, while ingots and semi-finished product exports fell by 10.8 percent - all compared to January-July 2010. Mr. Pasini said that the export of long steel is having a modest recovery, especially in North Africa and particularly in Algeria. According to the Federacciai chairman, this situation should remain unchanged until the end of the year.
It is clear that Italy continues to import much more than what it exports, creating a deficit in its trade balance. According to Pasini, it is positive that Italy is confirmed as a major consumer of steel, particularly of flat products. In the first eight months of 2011 the Italian steel output grew by 11.2 percent on an annual basis, from 16.8 million mt to 18.7 million mt. However, as Pasini stressed, the figure has been influenced by the reopening of the blast furnace No. 4 at Taranto last April.
Concluding his speech, Pasini emphasized that the Italian steel industries are internationally recognizable not only for the quality of their products, but also for the investments in support of technological development, for consideration to the impact on the environment, for the safeguard of jobs and professions through training and for a corporate vision with wide horizons. All this, however, "is not enough to make us look at the future with serenity." Some of the most peculiar problems are the energy factor (Italy has invested heavily in renewable energy, but it will need to pay off debts for the next twenty years), inefficient logistics (with road transport that has increased in recent years), and difficult and expensive access to the raw materials market, as well as excessive red tape and environmental legislation (CO2 factor) which penalizes Italy.