Italy reduced rolled steel exports by 12% y/y in January

In January 2025, Italian steel enterprises reduced exports of rolled steel products to third countries by 12% compared to the same month a year earlier, to 120.09 thousand tons. The figure fell by 2.7% month-on-month. This is according to GMK Center’s calculations based on Eurostat data.

Exports of long products decreased by 11.8% y/y and 9.3% m/m – to 66.97 thousand tons, while exports of flat products increased by 12.3% y/y and 7% m/m – to 53.12 thousand tons. Coated flat products (HS – 7210) accounted for the largest volume of shipments – 16.05 thousand tons (+27.5% y/y; +68.6% m/m), carbon steel wire (HS – 7217) – 13.54 thousand tons (-24.4% y/y, +1.9% m/m), other rods and bars of carbon steel, not further processed, twisted (HS – 7214) – 13.54 thousand tons (-6.7% y/y, +23.5% m/m), and hot-rolled flat products – 13.52 thousand tons (-48.9% y/y, -12.4% m/m).

In January 2025, imports of rolled products by Italian consumers increased by 6.4% y/y and 2.6 times m/m – to 961.64 thousand tons. In particular, shipments of long products amounted to 67.66 thousand tons (+17.4% y/y, +66.2% m/m), and flat products – 893.98 thousand tons (+5.7% y/y, +2.8 times m/m).

Key imported products include:

hot-rolled flat products (HS-7208) – 518.95 thousand tons (-6.7% y/y; +2.6 times m/m)
coated flat products (HS-7210) – 210.62 thousand tons (+15.9% y/y; +11.1 times m/m);
flat products made of corrosion-resistant steel (HS – 7219) – 60.52 thousand tons (+107.1% y/y, +57.8% m/m);
flat products of other alloy steels (HS-7225) – 53.6 thousand tons (+24.7% y/y, +95.9% m/m).

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2024, Italy decreased steel production by 5% compared to 2023, to 20 million tons. In December 2024, Italian steelmakers reduced steel production by 8.8% compared to December 2023 and by 33.4% to 1.199 million tons.

Long products production for the year amounted to 11.7 million tonnes, down 0.2% compared to 2023, and flat production amounted to 8.6 million tonnes (-9.7% y/y). Thus, long products output experienced only a slight decline, supported by increased construction activity. At the same time, the weakness of the automotive sector and industry, as well as high volumes of competitive imports, had a negative impact on flat products.