Romania's steel industry one step away from exiting the crisis

Romania's raw steel production, one of the industry drivers, continued to rise significantly this year, returning to almost pre-crisis levels. In August production was just 16% lower than in August 2008, back when the effects of the crisis were yet to be felt. Steel production was subsequently significantly hurt, falling by 65% over the course of a few months, with prices for the main products halving in 2009. In 2008 Romania produced around 4.8 tonnes of raw steel, with steel processing plants posting over 3.5 billion euros in turnover that same year.
"The rise in steel production is fuelled at international level by expansionist programmes aimed at driving countries out of this severe crisis. We are a competitive country as far as exports are concerned, because the RON has depreciated and labour costs are low," says Andrei Rădulescu, analyst at Target Capital.
The bulk of steel products are exported to European countries, where demand rebounded as early as last year.