Austria increased steel production by 8.6% y/y in February

Austrian steelmakers increased steel production by 8.6% in February 2024 compared to February 2023, to 580 thousand tons. Thus, the country was ranked 21st in the global ranking of steel producing countries (71) by the WorldSteel Association.

In February, Austrian steelmakers cut steel production by 6.9% compared to January this year.

In January-February, Austria increased steel production by 6.5% compared to the same period in 2023, to 1.2 million tons.

Overall, steel production in the European Union in January-February 2024 decreased by 0.9% compared to January-February 2023 – to 21.1 million tons. Global steel production for 2 months amounted to 306.9 million tons, up 3% y/y.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2023, Austria reduced steel production by 5% compared to 2022, to 7.13 million tons. The average monthly steel production amounted to 594.4 thousand tons, while in the same period of 2022 the figure was 626 thousand tons (-5.04% y/y).

Steel production in the European Union amounted to 126.3 million tons in 2023, down 7.4% y/y.

There are 2 Voestalpine steel plants in Austria, including Voestalpine Stahl Linz with an annual capacity of 6 million tons of steel and Voestalpine Stahl Donawitz with an annual capacity of 1.57 million tons.

The total capacity of the plants is 7.57 million tons per year. Thus, in 2023, capacity utilization was 94.2%.

The decline in steel production last year was due to the weak market conditions that have been observed since the fall of 2022. The European steel industry is facing high production costs at a time when demand for domestic steel products is weak amid a flood of cheaper imported products. In the autumn and winter, many companies limit their capacity to balance supply and demand and stabilize product prices.