Eurofer expects in a report released recently that EU finished steel market is unlikely to improve before the fourth quarter of 2020 or early 2021. The situation will depend largely on the time of production suspension in the downstream steel industry affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to the uncertainty and unprecedented disruption by the pandemic, Eurofer will not release the forecast data for 2020 and 2021, because uncertainty and volatility in the coming months mean that no forecast can be considered reliable, the European Union of iron and Steel said. Affected by the epidemic, the shutdown of some industrial enterprises has a negative impact on Europe and even the global economy, dragging the steel industry. This will have an unprecedented impact on steel production in the second and third quarters of this year. Against this background, the finished steel market is not expected to rebound significantly before the first quarter of 2021.