Italy 2009 steel, non-ferrous metal output to fall

Italy 2009 steel, non-ferrous metal output to fall * Italy 2009 steel, non-ferrous metal output to fall * H1 steel output to fall 40 percent, slight recovery in Q4 * Q1 non-ferrous metals product output falls 25 percent By Svetlana Kovalyova MILAN, May 12 (Reuters) - Italian output of steel and non-ferrous metal products will fall in 2009, despite a slight recovery expected in the last quarter, as the economic downturn dampens industrial demand, top sector officials said on Tuesday. Steel output in Italy, Europe's second-biggest producer after Germany, fell 40.9 percent in the first quarter to 4.92 million tonnes after a 3.1 percent full-year drop in 2008 to 30.5 million tonnes, steel industry body Federacciai said. "We had a 40 percent fall in the first quarter and the situation will be identical in the second quarter," Federacciai Chairman Giuseppe Pasini told a news conference. "There is no sign that the market can start recovery before August," Pasini said, adding that internal Italian demand was weaker than export demand, especially from North African consumers. A slight recovery expected at the end of this year linked to hopes of a pick-up in the Italian construction sector would not be able to reverse a full-year negative output trend, he added but gave no full-year forecasts. Steel makers around the world have cut output in response to the ongoing economic downturn which sapped industrial demand. Pasini said Italian steelmakers laid off temporarily some 16,000 people, or about a quarter of the 60,000 workforce directly employed by the steel industry and reduced working hours at plants but did not plan to cut jobs, at least for now. "Facing a recession of this dimension, we have to find social support schemes ... At the moment, job cuts are excluded," Pasini said. In the non-ferrous products sector, where Italy is also a major producer in Europe, first quarter output fell on average 25 percent, said Mario Bertoli, chairman of Italy's non-ferrous metals body Assomet. "If we close this year with a 20 percent fall on average it will already be a very good result for this year," Bertoli told the same news conference. Aluminium products have been performing better than copper and alloy semi-finished products which have long suffered from substitution of copper with cheaper materials, Assomet Director General Claudio De Cani said. Federacciai and Assomet announced their decision to create an umbrella association Confindustria Metalli to lobby together metals sector interests, such as reduction of Italian electricity prices, the highest in Europe.