Complete Steel Collection
Market outlook for 2011 - EU steel consumption to rise by 5% in 2011
25. 11. 2010
The steel distributor Eurometal estimates that apparent finished steel consumption
in the EU in 2011 will reach 147mt, up 5% on this year, but still well below the 184mt
recorded in 2007, the peak year in the last decade.
Eurometal reckons in its latest market outlook that apparent consumption for 2010
will amount to 139mt, up 2% on the previous year.
The association claims the business cycles of the main EU steel end-user sectors
remain split. Construction continues to suffer from a persisting negative cycle while it
is improving for mechanical engineering and consumer durables.
Booming new orders in the first eight months of this year from machinery, auto,
white goods, yellow goods and metal product sectors have boosted flat steel sales by
stockholding distributors in the EU by 24%. Long products sales over the same
period fell by 8% as a result of the continuing slump in construction.
Flat product sales by European distributors surged by 17% year-on-year in
September, while long products fell by 4%. At the end of September, stock volumes
represented 60 days of sales for flats, after some destocking, and 57 days for longs.
Source: EUROMETAL
