PARIS -(Dow Jones)- ArcelorMittal (MT), the world's largest steelmaker, doesn't expect European demand for hot-rolled coil, a type of flat steel product, to recover to the high levels seen prior to the financial crisis of 2008-09 until 2016, a senior ArcelorMittal executive said Friday.
"To come back to previous levels, it will take five years," Robrecht Himpe, Executive Vice President of Arcelormittal's Flat Carbon Europe division told Dow Jones Newswires Friday. He said the company had initially expected HRC demand to only take two to three years to recover and as a result had kept its two Liege blast furnaces on temporary idle in hopes of returning them to operation once demand recovered.
The world's largest steelmaker Friday confirmed plans to permanently close two blast furnaces at Liege, Belgium due to weak demand and structural over capacity in Northern Europe.
Himpe said the Liege plant has been operating at an effective loss if the Liege steelworks is benchmarked EUR50 per metric ton below its most productive steelworks such as the ones in Ghent, Belgium and Dunkerque, France. The benchmark is based on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization per ton of hot rolled coil produced.
- By Alex MacDonald, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)7776 200 924, alex.macdonald@dowjones.com
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