greenspeak schreef:
Arcelor Flat Carbon restrains its market supply in Europe
Luxembourg, March 25th, 2005 - The slow down initiatives taken in February to reduce the output of the European installations are being expanded in Q2 in line with the current demand evolution.
The apparent demand of Flat Carbon Steel in the European Union shows today a decrease of 14 % due to the high level of inventories, imports and the softening of real consumption at customer base.
In order to balance the supply with its lower demand, strengthened by the strong price increases of raw materials and energy, Arcelor Flat Carbon has decided to intensify the general output reduction at the different business units in Northern, Central and Southern Europe.
The reduced output of roughly 1 Mt as a result of the lower order intake during the first semester will be mainly done through:
the stoppage of a blast furnace in Stahlwerke Bremen,
a much lower output at the hot phase in Cockerill Sambre,
a reduced production of hot rolled coils at ACB plant in Viscaya,
a prolonged standstill of a blast furnace of EKO Stahl.
Arcelor, according to André Van den Bossche, Commercial Senior Executive of Arcelor Flat Carbon, will maintain this attitude until the apparent demand comes back to normal level.
groeten,
greenspeak