Brescia remains the leading Italian steelmaking hubalthough 2023 ended with a marked decline in terms of steel exported.
This is what emerges from the analysis carried out bySiderweb Research Office on Italian exports of the sector (Istat database), which highlights how the province of Brescia last year recorded sales abroad of 2.245 billion euros, down 26.1% compared to 2022 (it had exported for 3.038 billion) but still a clear increase compared to 2008 volumes (+13.4%, 1.98 billion).
These numbers then place Brescia at the top of the national ranking of steelmaking hubs, ahead of Udine (2.11 billion exports), Mantua (1.7), Bergamo (1.558) and Cremona (1.551). The province of Taranto closes the ranking, where obviously the affair relating toformer Ilva (now Acciaierie d’Italia): from 2008 to today it has seen foreign sales volumes drop by over 81%.
In Italy
At the Italian level steel exports (steel products, pipes and other first-process products) decreased by 16.9% in 2023, reaching a value of 23.2 billion euros (19.4 billion deriving from the top 20 territorial production hubs). In 2022 it had instead reached 28 billion.
However, volumes remained essentially stable to 16.2 million tonnes, after the 6% trend decline recorded in 2022. The negative change is therefore due entirely to the decrease in prices.
After two consecutive years of growth following the collapse of 2020 (-20% in 2020, +51.7% in 2021 and +23.8% in 2022), steel exports in value have therefore started to fall again. A decline that was slightly more marked if we look only at the top 20 Italian steelmaking hubs: exports decreased by 17.6%.
The performances
And it is in this context that it also fits the decline of the Brescia areawhich recorded one of the worst performances (-26.1%), behind only Terni (-39.2%), Genoa (-35.3%), Aosta (-29.3%). The only center with a plus sign is Bergamo (+16.2%), focused on the production of seamless tubes.
The comment
«These data confirm the consolidation of the geography of the production poles of Italian steel that was created after the great crisis of 2008 – comments Gianfranco Tosini of the Siderweb Research Office -. This process is evident not only from the production trend, but also from that of exports, which have recorded a much more marked reduction in the provinces where they are or, better, the largest steel companies were present (this is the case of the former Ilva now Acciaierie d’Italia in Taranto ed.).
And he adds: «The exports of the province of Turin, where the now closed Thyssenkrupp site was located, decreased by 39.1%, causing the loss of eight positions in the ranking of the top 20 Italian steelmaking hubs. Exports of Livorno (where JSW Steel Italy operates) were instead reduced by 60.6%, causing the exclusion from the top twenty Italian steelmaking hubs”.
