Despite grappling with soaring energy costs that contributed to a 4.1% dip in its 2023 crude steel output, Romania's steel industry remains a formidable economic engine, navigating global headwinds with a diverse production base and ambitious plans for a greener future.
Key Takeaways
- In 2023, Romania's crude steel production totaled 2.85 million metric tons, a 4.1% decline from 2022 due to energy costs
- Romania produced 1.12 million tons of hot-rolled coil (HRC) in 2022 at ArcelorMittal Galați, representing 72% of national HRC output
- In 2021, total pig iron production in Romania reached 2.41 million tonnes, primarily from Galați and Hunedoara plants
- Romania's crude steel production capacity is 5.2 million tonnes per year as of 2023, primarily at Galați
- ArcelorMittal Galați has a hot strip mill capacity of 3.3 million tonnes annually
- Liberty Steel Galați's cold rolling mill capacity is 1.2 million tonnes per year post-2023 upgrades
- Steel exports from Romania reached 1.95 million tonnes in 2023, valued at €1.8 billion
- In 2022, steel imports totaled 1.2 million tonnes, mainly from China and Turkey
- Romania exported 850,000 tonnes of HRC to EU countries in 2023
- Romania's employment in steel industry was 22,500 direct jobs in 2023
- ArcelorMittal Galați employs 6,800 workers as of 2024
- Tenaris Romania workforce totals 4,200 employees across three plants in 2023
- Steel industry revenue reached €4.2 billion in 2023
- ArcelorMittal Galați EBITDA was €250 million in 2022
- Tenaris Romania sales: €1.1 billion in 2023
Romania's steel industry remains large but production dipped in 2023 due to high energy costs.
Capacity
- Romania's crude steel production capacity is 5.2 million tonnes per year as of 2023, primarily at Galați
- ArcelorMittal Galați has a hot strip mill capacity of 3.3 million tonnes annually
- Liberty Steel Galați's cold rolling mill capacity is 1.2 million tonnes per year post-2023 upgrades
- Tenaris Silcotub's seamless pipe capacity stands at 700,000 tonnes annually in Zalau
- Calarasi steelworks has a plate mill capacity of 500,000 tonnes per year for heavy plates
- Hunedoara steel plant's EAF capacity is 600,000 tonnes of billets annually
- Romania's total EAF capacity is 2.1 million tonnes as of 2024
- Galați blast furnaces combined capacity is 4.2 million tonnes of hot metal per year
- Liberty Steel Oțelu Roșu's rolling mill capacity for long products is 350,000 tonnes/year
- Donalam Reșița has wire rod capacity of 800,000 tonnes annually
- Romania's galvanizing line at Galați has 900,000 tonnes capacity
- Total slab casting capacity in Romania is 3.8 million tonnes per year
- Tenaris Călărași OCTG pipe capacity is 150,000 tonnes/year
- Capacity utilization rate for Romanian steel industry was 55% in 2023
- Galați hot rolling mill utilization reached 78% in 2022
- National long products capacity totals 2.5 million tonnes/year
- EAF utilization in Romania averaged 62% in 2023
- Planned DRI capacity addition of 1 million tonnes by 2025 at Midia
- Color coating line capacity at Galați is 400,000 tonnes/year
- Total flat products capacity is 4.8 million tonnes in Romania
- Rebar rolling capacity across mills is 1.1 million tonnes annually
- Seamless tube capacity utilization was 82% in 2023 at Tenaris
- Blast furnace capacity utilization dropped to 68% in 2023 due to maintenance
- New HRC capacity of 1.5 million tonnes planned at Galați by 2026
- Wire drawing capacity totals 300,000 tonnes/year in Reșița
Capacity Interpretation
With a respectable total capacity of over 5 million tonnes per year, Romania's steel industry ironically spent 2023 operating at just 55% of its potential, proving it has more built-in brawn than current economic breath.
Employment
- Romania's employment in steel industry was 22,500 direct jobs in 2023
- ArcelorMittal Galați employs 6,800 workers as of 2024
- Tenaris Romania workforce totals 4,200 employees across three plants in 2023
- Liberty Steel Galați has 2,100 staff post-restructuring in 2023
- Steel sector indirect jobs estimated at 50,000 in Romania 2022
- Average salary in Romanian steel industry is €1,200 net monthly in 2023
- Hunedoara plant employs 1,200 workers in 2024
- Female employment ratio in steel is 18% or 4,000 women in 2023
- Training programs reached 5,000 steel workers in 2022 via ARMMR
- Youth under 30 employment: 12% or 2,700 in steel sector 2023
- Overtime hours averaged 150 per worker annually in 2022
- Calarasi steelworks staff: 850 employees in 2023
- Union membership covers 85% of steel workers, 19,000 members in 2023
- Labour productivity per employee: 140 tonnes steel/year in 2022
- Reșița Donalam employs 950 in wire production 2023
- Safety incidents: 1.2 per million hours worked in 2023
- Apprenticeships: 450 new in steel sector 2023
- Oțelu Roșu plant: 650 workers in 2022
- Remote work adoption: 5% in steel admin roles 2023
- Wage growth: 11% YoY to €1,350 in Q4 2023
- Turnover rate: 4.5% in steel industry 2022
- Migrant workers: 2% or 450 in steel plants 2023
- Shift workers: 78% of total steel employment in 2023
- R&D staff in steel: 1,200 engineers in 2022
Employment Interpretation
Romania's steel industry, employing over 22,000 directly, is a formidable but aging giant—powered largely by a unionized, shift-working core of men, whose rising productivity and wages are slowly being tempered by an influx of youth, a focus on safety, and the quiet hum of thousands more indirect jobs in its orbit.
Finance
- Steel industry revenue reached €4.2 billion in 2023
- ArcelorMittal Galați EBITDA was €250 million in 2022
- Tenaris Romania sales: €1.1 billion in 2023
- Liberty Steel Group Romania turnover: €850 million in 2023
- Net profit for Romanian steel sector: €180 million in 2022
- Capital investments: €450 million in 2023 for green steel
- Debt ratio for major steel firms averaged 45% in 2023
- Galați plant revenue: €2.8 billion in 2022
- Export revenue share: 55% of total steel sales in 2023
- R&D expenditure: 1.2% of revenue or €50 million in 2022
- Taxes paid by steel industry: €320 million in 2023
- Cost of energy: 35% of total production costs in 2023, €1.5 billion
- Return on assets (ROA): 8.2% for steel firms in 2022
- Donalam revenue: €420 million from wire rods in 2023
- Subsidies received: €120 million for decarbonization in 2023
- Average selling price: €750/tonne for HRC in 2023
- Market cap of listed steel firms: €1.2 billion in 2023
- Cash flow from operations: €300 million industry-wide 2022
- Investment in automation: €80 million in 2023
- Profit margin: 4.5% for flat products in 2023
- Bond issuances: €200 million by steel companies in 2023
- Dividend payouts: €45 million in 2022
- Cost per tonne produced: €550 in 2023
Finance Interpretation
Despite generating billions in revenue and making substantial tax contributions, Romania's steel industry reveals itself to be walking a high-wire act, balancing hefty energy costs and significant debt with slim margins, all while betting heavily on expensive green investments to avoid falling flat.
Production
- In 2023, Romania's crude steel production totaled 2.85 million metric tons, a 4.1% decline from 2022 due to energy costs
- Romania produced 1.12 million tons of hot-rolled coil (HRC) in 2022 at ArcelorMittal Galați, representing 72% of national HRC output
- In 2021, total pig iron production in Romania reached 2.41 million tonnes, primarily from Galați and Hunedoara plants
- Romania's direct reduced iron (DRI) production was 45,000 tonnes in 2023, all from Tenaris Silcotub S.A.
- In Q4 2023, monthly crude steel output averaged 220,000 tonnes, down 8% YoY
- ArcelorMittal Galați produced 2.3 million tonnes of slabs in 2022
- Romania's wire rod production stood at 450,000 tonnes in 2021, mainly from Donalam
- In 2020, long steel products output was 1.65 million tonnes, up 3% from 2019
- Galați plant's blast furnace No. 5 produced 1.8 million tonnes of hot metal in 2023
- Total blooms and billets production reached 780,000 tonnes in 2022 across Romanian mills
- In 2023, Romania's structural steel sections output was 320,000 tonnes
- Heavy plate production totaled 250,000 tonnes in 2021 from Calarasi works
- Romania manufactured 1.05 million tonnes of cold-rolled coil in 2022
- Seamless tubes production hit 550,000 tonnes in 2023 by Tenaris
- In 2020, Romania's rebar production was 890,000 tonnes
- Galați's galvanised steel output reached 420,000 tonnes in 2022
- Total steel for automotive sector was 180,000 tonnes in 2023
- In Q1 2024, crude steel production was 680,000 tonnes, up 2% QoQ
- Romania's merchant bar production stood at 210,000 tonnes in 2021
- Electrical steel sheets production was 35,000 tonnes in 2022
- In 2023, scrap-based electric arc furnace (EAF) output contributed 28% of total steel, or 798,000 tonnes
- Liberty Steel Hunedoara produced 150,000 tonnes of long products in 2023
- Romania's H-beam production totaled 140,000 tonnes in 2022
- In 2021, coated steel products output was 510,000 tonnes
- Pipe production for energy sector reached 120,000 tonnes in 2023
- In 2020, Romania's steel sheet piling output was 45,000 tonnes
- Total alloy steel production was 280,000 tonnes in 2022
- Galați plant's No. 6 blast furnace output was 1.2 million tonnes hot metal in 2023
- Stainless steel output stood at 25,000 tonnes in 2021 from Outokumpu or partners
- In Q3 2023, average daily steel production was 7,200 tonnes
Production Interpretation
Romania's steel industry, though still a titan in the region, spent 2023 gingerly stepping around scorching energy costs, its production figures flinching like a visitor at a forge who forgot their gloves.
Trade
- Steel exports from Romania reached 1.95 million tonnes in 2023, valued at €1.8 billion
- In 2022, steel imports totaled 1.2 million tonnes, mainly from China and Turkey
- Romania exported 850,000 tonnes of HRC to EU countries in 2023
- Flat steel products exports grew 12% YoY to €950 million in 2022
- Seamless pipes exports by Tenaris hit 420,000 tonnes in 2023, 60% to EU
- Long steel products imports were 450,000 tonnes in 2021
- Romania's steel trade surplus was €650 million in 2023
- Exports to Germany accounted for 25% of total steel shipments in 2022, 480,000 tonnes
- Italy imported 320,000 tonnes of Romanian slabs in 2023
- Rebar exports declined 15% to 250,000 tonnes in 2023 due to quotas
- Wire rod exports totaled 180,000 tonnes in 2022, mainly to Balkans
- Steel imports from Turkey rose 20% to 280,000 tonnes in 2023
- Galați HRC exports to Turkey were 150,000 tonnes in 2023
- OCTG pipes exports reached $500 million in 2022 from Călărași
- EU anti-dumping duties impacted 10% of Romanian steel exports in 2023
- Steel trade volume with Ukraine surged 30% to 100,000 tonnes in 2023
- France imported 200,000 tonnes of Romanian coated steel in 2022
- Domestic steel consumption was 3.1 million tonnes in 2023
- Exports of electrical steel to automotive sector: 15,000 tonnes in 2023
- Import tariffs on Chinese steel affected 50,000 tonnes in Romania 2022
- Steel exports to USA totaled 20,000 tonnes in 2023 under quotas
- Heavy plate exports to shipbuilding: 80,000 tonnes in 2022
Trade Interpretation
Romania’s steel industry has masterfully forged a profitable export machine, though it must carefully temper the heat from foreign competition and trade barriers to keep its trade surplus glowing.
Sources & References
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