Fastmarkets' Steel Success Strategies Online event started on Monday October 26. Here are four things that we learnt during the European Steel Panel on the first day of the forum.
Carbon barriers are inevitable
The European steel industry has been heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, with a number of steelmakers cutting their output, shutting down capacity or both. Even though
major steelmakers have started to bring back idled capacities recently, steel output rates in the region remained below pre-pandemic figures.
Germany is the EU's most productive steelmaking area and it showed a
9.7% year-on-year drop in crude steel output in September this year. Crude steel production in Italy, the bloc's second-largest steelmaker,
dropped by 18.71% year-on-year in the same month.
In addition to the pandemic, European steelmakers were being challenged by rising production costs, particularly a rise in the price of carbon permits.
Consequently, the European steel sector has been calling for the introduction of a carbon border adjustment that would help to create a level playing-field and enable the decarbonization of the sector.
"A...