Italian steel production in the first half of 2026 increased by 3.5% year-on-year, reaching 11.5 million tons. . . . . Italian steel production in the first half of 2026 increased by 3.5% year-on-year to 11.5 million tons. According to the Italian steel producers association Federacciai, the growth rate accelerated in the second quarter, with steel production rising 6.1% year-on-year to 1.9 million tonnes in June. The data showed that production growth, which was 1.5% in the first quarter, accelerated to 5.4% in the second quarter, indicating stronger momentum in the country's steel industry. Hot-the production of flat rolled products also showed the first positive indicators since the beginning of the year. In June, production increased by 7.7% year-on-year to 780,000 tons. Despite the monthly growth, the total volume of flat rolled products in January-June remained 5.4% lower than a year earlier, amounting to 4.6 million tons. The growth trend in the production of long products, which had been outlined in previous months, continued. The production of rolled products in June increased by 5.4% year-on-year to 1.1 million tons, while the total production in the first half of the year reached 6.9 million tons, which is 7.8% more than in the same period of 2025. Global crude steel production increased for the first time in a year compared to the same period last year.- annual growth since the beginning of 2026. Global production increased by 1.7% year-on-year in June. After several months of decline, steel production in China stabilized, increasing by 0.4%, while production in the rest of the world increased by 3.2%. The largest increases were recorded in Vietnam (+27.5%), Turkey (+14.7%) and India (+4.5%), while production decreased by 3.4% in Russia and 0.9% in South Korea.
ZZZ24ZZZ25ZZZ26Z The European Union also resumed growth in June, increasing crude steel production by 4.6% on an annual basis. The recovery was largely driven by output in Germany increased by 9.5% and in Italy by 6.1%. Meanwhile, data from the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) showed that the country's industrial production index rose 1.1% year-on-year in May. As a result, the cumulative growth of industrial production in the first five months of this year reached 0.6% compared to the same period in 2025. Overall, the growth rate in steel-consuming industries has slowed. After a contraction in April, the metal products sector returned to positive territory with a 1% increase in May. During the same period, the production of the automotive industry increased by 16.1%, other transport equipment - by 3.6%, electrical equipment - by 3.3%, and the engineering sector - by 1%, while the household appliances sector declined
