Pasini (Feralpi): 'Sustainability doesn't frighten me, but we need the right tools'

At the wire & Tube 2024 event, I had the pleasure of interviewing Giuseppe Pasini, President of Feralpi, who was present at the fair with a stand representing the entire steel group.

Given that we were in Germany, it was inevitable to mention the recent article in Handelsblatt - the well-known German daily newspaper specializing in economics and finance - in which Pasini himself criticized the excessive bureaucracy and sluggishness hindering the country's progress.

So, for once, are we better off in Italy?

In this particular instance, yes. Overall, there's a sense of concern throughout Europe. The economy is stagnant, and I notice a widespread inability to react cohesively to conflicts and current critical issues. Speaking of Germany, I've been working here for over thirty years, and it's with a sense of regret that I've witnessed how much the country has changed. It's a stagnant nation, unable to react. If we look at the construction sector, for example, while Germany is experiencing a significant slowdown, Italy is faring better. Thanks to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, there's a lot of work in Italy. The numbers bear this out: the volumes are there.

What are the most pressing challenges for the European steel industry?

The most critical issue I see is the lack of ferrous scrap. If we truly want to push for decarbonization in the sector, we need to incentivize electric steelmaking. For this reason, scrap is a strategic material, and it is essential to keep it within the EU. But currently, this is not the case, and 70% of the scrap that we Europeans export goes to Turkey. That also risks increasing prices. We’ve even emphasized these issues through Eurofer, which is our reference European association: projections based on the processing needs that the European steel industry will have to undergo by 2030-2050 indicate that there won’t be enough scrap available to cover our demand and that we’ll have to import it when instead we export it - an absurd distortion.

What solutions do you see?

I echo Mario Draghi's call for the European Union to act in a unified manner. Currently, there's a lack of a common strategy shared by all EU countries on many fronts. We need fewer and less outdated rules, and we need to be more responsive. The European elections in June will be crucial in this regard.

Returning to Feralpi for a moment, aren’t you afraid of all this push for green conversion?

Sustainability doesn't frighten me, but we need the right tools to support it. The steel industry is traditionally impactful and energy-intensive. At Feralpi, we are making significant investments to electrify processes and eliminate fossil fuels from our production through initiatives both in Italy, at the Lonato and Caleotto plants, and in Germany, with a new cutting-edge coil production line. The production of renewable energy must go hand in hand with these investments. Here too, I see a significant delay on the part of the European Union, which has - rightly - been trying to emancipate itself from its dependence on gas and Russian gas but has been unable to apply a shared energy policy.

And what about the Taranto steelworks, what can you tell us?

I know the Italian government is looking for players who can take control of the steel mill. For my part, I hope that Taranto returns to production at higher levels, given the shortage of flat products in Italy.

Giuseppe Pasini heads Feralpi, a family-owned company founded by his father Carlo in 1968. The Feralpi Group is one of the leading steel producers in Europe, specializing in steel products for construction and special applications. Originally founded in Lonato del Garda (Brescia), today Feralpi has a branched and international structure, operating in 7 countries with over 1900 employees distributed between Italy, Europe, and North Africa.

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Caleotto: the online stand on Expometals.net
Nuova Defim: the online stand on Expometals.net