Italy's exports decreased in 2022

Italy's apparent steel consumption decreased by 4.5% y-o-y to 29 million tonnes in 2022. Shipments in the domestic market amounted to 25.3 million tonnes, down 10.1% y-o-y.

Italy's exports to EU27 countries decreased by 8.4% to 10.3 million tonnes last year after the peak in 2021. Exports to non-EU countries decreased by 21.7% y-o-y to around 1.7 million tonnes.

Germany was the largest market last year, buying 2.4 million tonnes of Italian steel, down 13.9% y-o-y. Romania also bought 21.5 per cent less than a year earlier, while Austria's purchases were down 9.5 per cent. Italian exports to Canada decreased significantly, dropping from 158,000 tonnes in 2021 to 14,000 tonnes in 2022, while exports to Turkey decreased by 29.5% to 262,000 tonnes. Sales to the US increased by 22.4% to 179,000 tonnes.

In 2022, the country's total imports amounted to 18.7 million tonnes, down by only 2.5% compared to 2021. Imports from the EU27 decreased by 2.1% to 8.6 million tonnes. Imports from third countries decreased by 2.8% to 10.2 million tonnes. Purchases from France increased by 6.7% to 1.9 million tonnes last year. France was Italy's top steel supplier, followed by Germany, which shipped 1.8 million tonnes to Italy last year, down by a significant 18.2%.

Among the third countries, Ukraine showed the biggest decrease in steel shipments to Italy, from 2.2 million tonnes to 459,000 tonnes in 2021. In 2021, Italy bought 597,000 tonnes from China. This figure tripled last year to 1.5 million tonnes.