THE EUROPEAN STEEL SECTOR IS GOING AT RISK
There is a period that can be described as dark times for the steel mills in Europe. The war between Russia and Ukraine has paralyzed Ukrainian steel production, while Western sanctions (and anticipated Russian counter-sanctions) continue to inflame energy and raw material prices.
ITALIAN STEEL FACTORIES STOP PRODUCTION
Especially in Italy, industrial facilities that use energy most intensively, such as steel factories, were among those affected by the situation.
Since yesterday, almost all Italian steel mills have stopped or are preparing to stop.
Here is a list of some of the companies that stopped production due to expensive energy:
Pittini Group , Acciaierie Bertoli Safau , Acciaierie Venete , AFV Beltrame , ORI Martin , Duferco Travi and Profilati . Also, Arvedi Group, Feralpi Group and Alfa Acciaine have yet to decide what to do.
The rise in energy costs began last year, but today the crisis has taken full effect among steel companies that have so far tried to resist at the expense of higher costs at the expense of margins.
The price of electricity has reached an unimaginable 600 euro/MWh these days.
NON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY PRICES
An idea of the unsustainability of prices comes from the latest data from Federacciai. On March 7, electricity fluctuated from an average price of 463 euro/MWh to a peak of 605 euro/MWh per hour.
According to Siderweb, the situation is very uncertain, but other steel mills are likely to be halted in the next few days. On the other hand, many believe that even storing manufactured materials at current cost levels is too risky.
In short, if prices suddenly drop, the resulting losses will be really heavy.
In addition to all this, market players are also worried about the very high prices of steel, as with other metals. Such high prices can actually cause a prolonged freeze in the market.
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