Spain produced 14.3 million tons of crude steel in 2018, a fall of 0.8% compared to 2017. Non-alloy steel registered the figure for the previous year while stainless steels suffered a greater fall of 3.3% in terms of its volume.

On the other hand, the apparent steel consumption in Spain was around 14 million tons during 2018, a strong growth of 12.6% with respect to the previous year. The strong growth was due to better market conditions, but also the notable rise in imports from third countries, trying to anticipate the exhaustion of the safeguard quota imposed by the EU.

Andrés Barceló, general director of UNESID, concluded 2018 was a year with minimal variations for the Spanish steel sector, different from the uncertainties in the global, European and national economy.

Foreign trade data confirmed the Spanish steel industry was a very open sector and integrated into international value chains, according to the director.