Madrid, Spain 23-24 May 2007 SBB News ArchiveSee what our SBB reporters are saying about the European and Spanish Steel Markets. Have a browse through the articles extracted from our SBB news archive listed below. We will update this list periodically.
The European Commission has approved the Spanish national allocation plan for 2008-12 in which 12.2m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions have been assigned to the steel industry. Juan Ignacio Bartolomé, general director of Unesid, the Spanish steel federation, tells Steel Business Briefing this is less than the 12.8m t that the industry finally asked for. Initially, the steel industry had asked for some 13.2 m t of CO2, amount that was reduced to 11.7m t by the Spanish environment authority which subsequently increased it to 12.8 m t after a consultation period last year, as previously reported. “I still think 12.2m tonnes are not enough for the Spanish steel industry, which will end up paying for CO2 allowances,” he comments. “Spain has more restrictions than other European countries,” he adds.
Arcelor Mittal is commissioning a recently installed line to produce sandwich panels at its works in Catalonia, northern Spain, a source at the company tells Steel Business Briefing. Construction work at the plant which started few months ago has been completed, and the company expects to be producing at close to full capacity by April or May. The plant in Catalonia – the biggest steel consuming region in Spain – is able to produce a wide range of sandwich panels of different thickness and length. The plant will mainly feed the domestic market but it could also export to neighbouring countries such as France. The Catalonian production site is 50% owned by Europerfil and 50% by Arcelor Mittal. The steelmaking group has three more sandwich panel plants in the Iberian peninsula – one in Asturias, a new one in Toledo, close to Madrid and one in Portugal.
Spanish steel distributor Grupo Ros Casares is to establish a new service centre close to San Augustín port in Avilés, northern Spain, a source at the company tells Steel Business Briefing This is the group’s first service centre in that area. The company did not provide any information about the project at SBB’s deadline. However, according to local newspapers, the new service centre will have an area of some 22,000 square metres and will be used to distribute steel to the Madrid region and across Europe. The cost of this investment is thought to be around €13m and the construction work is planned to start next month, the reports say. The company, which has a strong presence in the south of Spain, has been recently granted 14,000 square metres of land at the Vilagarcia de Arousa port in northern Spain to construct a new service centre, which will start operating in a year’s time, as previously reported.
Steel distributor Spanish Grupsider is to open a new warehouse in Zaragoza, northern Spain, a source at the company tells Steel Business Briefing. The new depot is to start operations at the end of next year. The warehouse will handle a wide range of flat and long products, and will possess a cutting line for beams and pipes. At the moment, construction work is underway, after the company recently completed the purchase of the land, the same source says. Meanwhile, last week Grupsider inaugurated the opening of another warehouse, close to the Spanish capital Madrid. The new site will commercialise long products in Madrid and the surrounding area. The new 15,000 square metre unit, which ahs one cutting line, expects to reach monthly sales of some 3,000 tonnes. Grupsider is part of the Spanish steel distribution group Hiemesa.
Spanish car production decreased by 4.68% to 260,119 units in September, compared to the same period last year, Anfac, the country's car manufacturers association, tells Steel Business Briefing. During the first nine months of the year, car production dropped by 2.47%. The drop is attributed to weakening car demand in France, the UK and Italy, where Spanish manufacturers have a considerable market share, Anfac says. Figures from the association show that French car sales went down by 13% in September. Italian sales decreased by 3.2% and in the UK the drop was 0.7%. In Germany, where Spain has also a significant market share, sales increased by 4.5%. Anfac says the fourth quarter of the year is expected to be better than the previous one. However, 2006’s production is not expected to exceed last year’s.
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