Steelworkers in Europe completely revive the industry

After years of decline, European steelmakers are returning to pre-crisis levels of production growth. They hope that the wound inflicted on the metals industry by the 2007/8 global crisis, after which the industry has long struggled to recover, will finally heal completely.

Steel demand in Europe collapsed during the economic downturn, leading to painful factory closings and the loss of tens of thousands of jobs as companies such as ArcelorMittal, Tata Steel and ThyssenKrupp sought to cut costs. According to the data released by the well-known European appraisal company , steel production in the EU countries in the first half of 2009 decreased by 43%.

The situation was aggravated by the fault of China, which produces half of the world's steel. In 2015, it massively flooded the international markets with cheap steel products, leading to a decrease in the cost of goods.

But in subsequent years, stronger demand in the region, higher world prices for the metal and protectionist moves by Brussels contributed to the revival of the industry.

The evidence of the improvement in the situation in the steel industry was the data on income for the last quarter of last year. Analysts predict stable growth for the steel sector in the future, throughout 2018. Investors seem to agree with them too, as evidenced by the rise in stocks of several European steel stocks during 2017. ArcelorMittal is up 15%, Voestalpine is up 30% and Salzgitter is up 40%.