Italy’s Steel Production Declines by 5% in 2024
Italy’s steel production experienced a significant downturn in 2024, with output dropping by 5 percent year-on-year, reaching a total of 20 million tons, according to the Italian Federation of Steelworkers, Federacciai. This decline is part of a broader trend affecting Europe’s steel industry, which has faced a range of pressures, from weak demand to increased competition from imports.
The reduction in production was primarily driven by a sharp drop in the production of flat products, which saw a decline of 9.7 percent year-on-year, amounting to just 8.6 million tons. In contrast, long products production, which accounted for 11.7 million tons, experienced only a modest decline of 0.2 percent, highlighting the ongoing resilience of the construction sector, a key consumer of long steel products. The automotive sector, however, struggled, significantly impacting the demand for flat products. The sector faced weakened demand, coupled with high levels of competitive imports, which reached 5.58 million tons between January and October 2024. This combination of factors placed substantial pressure on the Italian steel industry’s flat product output.
December 2024 saw a particularly sharp decline in steel production, with output falling by 8.8 percent compared to December 2023, and a staggering 33.4 percent month-on-month drop, amounting to 1.199 million tons. In the long products category, production was down 4.7 percent year-on-year, reaching 682 thousand tons, and decreased by 38 percent from the previous month. Conversely, flat products showed a slight increase of 3.2 percent compared to the previous year, reaching 639 thousand tons, though it also saw a monthly decline of 14.4 percent. The seasonal slowdown in construction activity likely contributed to the drop in long products production, reflecting weaker demand from this crucial sector.
This decline in steel production in 2024 follows a similar trend observed in 2023, when Italy’s steel output fell by 2.5 percent year-on-year to 21.06 million tons. Both years have been marked by high energy costs, sluggish global demand, and competition from lower-cost steel imports. On a broader scale, the European Union’s steel production also faced challenges. In 2023, EU production dropped by 7.4 percentyear-on-year to 126.3 million tons. However, December 2023 saw a slight improvement, with EU steel production rising by 2.7 percent compared to the same month in the previous year, reaching 9.1 million tons. Italy’s steel industry faces a difficult year ahead as it contends with persistent challenges from both domestic and global economic pressures. While long products have shown some resilience, the flat steel sector remains under considerable strain, reflecting broader challenges facing European steelmakers in 2024.
