The Spanish steel sector suffered "... a bad year for steel production" in 2016, according to Andres Barceló, head of local steelmaker’s association Unesid.

“Global improvement of the sector in the second half of 2016 allowed steelmakers to close the year and face 2017 with more optimism,” adds Barceló.

During 2016 the Spanish steel industry was hit by domestic and European political and sectoral uncertainties. Steel production was affected by stoppages for maintenance at one industrial plant, as well as by the closure of two other facilities in the country, Unesid says. This led to falls in production, prices, consumption, export and imports of steel products.

Spanish crude steel production fell by -8.5% year-on-year in 2016 to 13.6 million tonnes, while consumption in Spain decreased by -1.3% y-o-y to 12.6mt. Local consumption of long products stood at 4mt, flat products remained stable at 8.1mt and semi-finished products fell by -26% y-o-y to 0.4mt.

Spain exported 9.3mt of steel products in 2016, or -2.8% less year-on-year. The export value of almost €6.6 billion ($7 billion) represented a -10.6% decrease in comparison to 2015.

The sole positive indicator during the year was represented by imports, which grew by 5.1% y-o-y to 9.4mt. This was mainly fuelled by sales from European mills as non EU-origin imports shrank by -4.5% y-o-y in 2016 to 5.7mt, Unesid says.

The country continued to have a positive trade balance, but this was down -37.6% y-o-y to €853 million in 2016.