Italian crude steel output increased in July by 9.2% year-on-year to 1.7 million tonnes, according to data issued by local steelmakers association Federacciai. This comes after several months of declining output. In the first seven months of the year, however, production fell by 4.8% on-year to 13.1mt, Kallanish notes.

Flat steel production also increased by 7.4% to 846,000t last month but fell by 6.4% to 5.8mt over January-July. Longs output hiked by 6.3% to 960,000t and decreased by 4.3% to 7.3mt respectively in July and January-July.

While long product sales performance has been subdued in July and August, the Italian market expects some price increases and improved sales volume for coils mostly due to the exhaustion of import quotas. This week most Italian mills are in the process of resuming output after the three-week stoppage for seasonal maintenance. Particularly for some long products such as merchant bars and beams August production stoppages have been longer than usual to address the issue of overcapacity. Both flats and longs markets are suffering from a steep decline in end-use consumption.

Italian crude steel output declined by 11.5% y-o-y in 2022 to 21.6mt. Flats production tumbled 13.8% to 9.5mt, while longs output fell by 12% to 12mt.