Copying and distributing are prohibited without permission of the publisher

Steel users' prospects are positive despite recession, Eurofer says

February 03, 2012 - 12:02 GMT Location: London

KEYWORDS: Eurofer , steel , eurozone , consumption , Gordon Moffat , destocking

Downstream steel users sustained firm levels of activity despite the shallow recession in the final quarter of 2011, according to European steel association Eurofer’s economic and steel outlook for the first quarter of 2012, published on Friday February 3.

Steel consumption grew by 7.2% in 2011, Eurofer said, despite weaker demand in the second half of the year caused by downstream business conditions, poorer access to financing and credit, and destocking in the distribution chain. Eurofer highlights the eurozone debt crisis as one of the main contributing factors...

All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws. © Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC.

Please log in using your online subscriber details.
Your username will be your registered email address with Metal Bulletin.

If you aren't a subscriber yet, feel free to take a seven day free trial, or subscribe using the instructions below.

A standard subscription include one year's worth of news and prices. You can also upgrade to the full archive and benefit from more than 13 years of intelligence. Start your subscription today.

Free trial

Taking a free trial will give you open access to Metal Bulletin online news, prices, archived content and email alert service for the next seven days. Start your free trial today.

Free trial

Already have an account?

Carbon Steel Long Products

May 24, 2012 05:10 SE Asia’s wire rod prices fall on cheaper imports from China
May 24, 2012 03:55 SE Asia’s billet prices down $5 tracking scrap price fall
May 24, 2012 00:52 WIRE ROD SUPPLY CHAIN CONF: Lawyers disagree on US trade remedies
May 24, 2012 00:46 US steel imports log year-over-year climb
May 24, 2012 00:39 WIRE ROD SUPPLY CHAIN CONF: Illegal trade hindering US recovery, Ferriola says

Carbon Steel Flat Products

May 24, 2012 00:46 US steel imports log year-over-year climb
May 23, 2012 21:36 Brazil’s flats distributors buy 11% less steel in April
May 23, 2012 21:27 Usiminas’ Cubatão blast furnace at full rate after fire
May 23, 2012 19:32 ArcelorMittal Tubarão to idle No.3 furnace
May 23, 2012 17:43 European HDG price tracks decline in coil prices

Comment & analysis

EXPERT VIEW FROM ERNST & YOUNG: Horror week favours the brave

Seven days is a long time in the investment world, but last week must have felt longer than most.
COMMENT: When super-cycle poster child BHP Billiton trims its plans...

BHP Billiton is one of the poster children for the commodities super-cycle: a mining company whose immense upstream assets in copper and iron ore have fed the industrialisation of China since the early years of the 21st century and enabled it to return $52 billion to shareholders between 2001 and 2011.
LORD COPPER: There is nothing to fear after JP Morgan loss ...

So, here we go again. Another bank, another huge trade gone bad. This one doesn’t even appear to have been a case of rogue trading; a whole desk seems to have been operating with the full knowledge of the management and/or risk committee.