Bloomberg quoted Mr Sakari Tamminen CEO of Rautaruukki Oyj as saying that steelmakers face a slow recovery from the worst slump in demand since World War II as industry struggles to get funding for capital investment.

He added that "The freefall has stopped and demand has leveled off at pretty low levels compared to where we were. We need to be prepared for a slow recovery. The de stocking phase is ending among our customers. The big question now is when will end-user demand develop and at what level the recovery will be when it takes place. Uncertainty in financing is still there and affecting especially investment decisions."

He said that Rautaruukki, which posted a second straight quarterly loss on July 17th 2009, expects to move closer to profitability this year.

He added that "Our forecast is that we will have a clearly improved second half. It still might be a small loss, but we expect improvements at the end of the year."

(Sourced from www.bloomberg.net)