2. Price and cost trends

In view of the relatively slow evolution of steel industry processes and chains, it is interesting to see what influence rapid changes in economic conditions, such as those we have been witnessing for over two years, can have. It seems to us that this evolution can be explained and commented on by successively examining :

• firstly, trends in global steel consumption and production;

• environmental protection and recycling of by-products and co-products;

• then the trend in prices of the main raw materials used in the steel industry;

• and, finally, the parallel evolution of costs, i.e. the cost price of steel products.