Bloomberg cited The RWI economic institute as saying that German raw steel production probably will drop 30% in 2009 as builders and carmakers choose to use up stockpiles rather than buy more of the metal.

Mr Roland Doehrn head of growth and economy at RWI in a report said that “Output is likely to fall to 32 million tonnes from 45.8 million tonnes in 2008. Mills would then be running at about 60% of capacity unusually low level in the long term.”

It added that “Raw steel production probably will gain 4.2% to 33.3 million tonnes next year on a slight increase in Germany’s gross domestic product and livelier investments at the end of 2010.

(Sourced from Bloomberg)