The EU's steel consuming sectors will see modest strengthening in 2015, despite weakened sentiment, Eurofer
said in a report Thursday.
The tubes sector is expected to have the highest output growth rate, rising by almost 4% y-o-y in 2015. With just
13% share in steel consumption, the sector will outdo the construction and mechanical engineering sectors, which
together have around 50% share in EU steel consumption, according to the report.
Growth in the steel tube industry is expected to be driven from Q4 of 2014 through booked orders for tubes for the
first stretch of the South Stream pipeline project, as well as projects in the Middle East and North Africa.
For the construction sector, which consumes over a third of EU steel, the outlook for 2015 is a similar annual
growth rate to that of 2014 at 1.8%. Eurofer forecasted that “the key driver of growth will remain the residential
sector activity, although the non-residential and civil engineering sectors are also expected to gain some strength
again.”
“Only in France activity is forecast to decline slightly further in 2015, but Italy and Spain – two large construction
markets in the EU which have been in decline for many years – expect minor growth. Output in the UK and Central
Europe is foreseen to rise rather strongly,” the association added.
The mechanical engineering sector's output growth is foreseen to improve to almost 3% y-o-y in 2015, as the
weakened euro is expected to strengthen the competitive position of Eurozone exporters on the buoyant US
market.
EU automotive output is foreseen to rise 4.5% y-o-y in 2014 and by around 3% y-o-y in 2015. Further moderate
growth is expected for EU passenger car and commercial vehicle demand, while domestic markets are expected to
strengthen gradually further on par with the cautious economic recovery in the EU.