Brescia (Italy), April 22, 2025 - There will be 385 steel companies attending the eleventh edition of Made in Steel, the international Conference & Exhibition dedicated to the steel industry organized by siderweb - La community dell'acciaio, which will be held on May 6, 7 and 8 in halls 22 and 24 at fieramilano Rho. The increase from the last edition, the 2023 edition, is 21.4%. 34.5% of the companies attending come from abroad, a marked improvement over the previous edition (25.2%). 25 foreign countries are represented: among them are the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Germany, France, China, Britain, Belgium and India.

The exhibition area is also on the rise this year, rising from about 15 thousand to nearly 18 thousand square meters (+18.2%), a new all-time record for the international event. More than 50 buyers, both Italian and foreign, will participate in the three-day event, thanks to the collaboration with ICE - Agency for the promotion abroad and internationalization of Italian companies.

Made in Steel thus confirms itself as the international benchmark event for the entire national and European steel supply chain, from production to utilization, through processing and services, including logistics. An appointment awaited by operators, the sold out exhibition spaces already reached at the beginning of the year testifies to this, all the more so in a historical phase in which steel is going through a moment of great uncertainty about its future, between trade tensions and geopolitical instability, high costs and the need to invest in decarbonization as the legislator is asking.

"We are living in a context of great uncertainty and Made in Steel represents a moment of meeting and confrontation for the entire steel supply chain. It will be three days of sharing ideas, business, visions and actions, to face the current complex challenges together," said Paolo Morandi, CEO of Made in Steel and siderweb. "Made in Steel is one of the events conceived and organized by siderweb, the steel community. In this climate of "big black clouds," siderweb stands as a tool at the service of companies in our sector, at all levels of the supply chain, to orient themselves on a daily basis through information, data analysis, and in-depth analysis. The title chosen for this 11th edition of Made in Steel is "The Beauty of Steel" because we want to celebrate the beauty of steel, its countless uses, its splendor. Steel is a material that is friendly to people and fundamental to progress. We don't know what the future will look like, but we are convinced that we can, together, start building it, including through moments like Made in Steel."

The 11th edition of Made Steel will be held in partial concurrence with Lamiera, the international exhibition promoted by UCIMU-SISTEMI PER PRODURRE dedicated to the machine tool industry for sheet metal forming and cutting, scheduled from Tuesday, May 6, to Friday, May 9, in Halls 13 and 15. A synergy intended to encourage visitor circularity and multiply opportunities for doing business. After first accessing the exhibition for which they have registered, visitors will subsequently be able to circulate freely in the second concurrent exhibition as well.

CONFERENCES AND ARENA - More than 50 speakers, from Italy and Europe, will take part in the moments of insight and analysis during Made in Steel 2025. They will discuss the economic situation and prospects for carbon and stainless steel; the new siderweb project "Industry & Steel 2050"; decarbonization; and steel prices, female employment and technological innovation.

The Made in Steel conference program, in addition to the appointments that will be held in the siderweb Conference Room, this year includes a series of seven events in the form of "talks" hosted in the siderweb Arena, in the center of Halls 22 and 24 at fieramilano Rho. For the first time, there will also be the Steel Talking Arena, where companies can present their projects.

"In the complexity of the moment we are experiencing, the insights we will be proposing are intended to be a key to reading and interpreting the economic situation, thanks to the insights of siderweb and the contributions of the dozens of speakers from Italy and Europe who will speak at our conferences," said Francesca Morandi, external relations manager of siderweb. "We will let the steel supply chain and institutions speak. After all, Made in Steel is the home of Italian and international steel. Finally, as always we believe in contamination. That's why there will be a moment dedicated to our "Acciaio al Femminile" project. Creating and mixing, that is also 'The Beauty of Steel' for us."

THE ECONOMIC SCENARIO - "We approach Made in Steel as we go through a time of great uncertainty, with some clouds on the horizon for steel and steelmaking," said siderweb's content and editorial strategy coordinator Emanuele Norsa. "Trump's re-election, tariffs on many countries and possible responses from the European Union are only adding to the instability. It is the domino effect of these measures and countermeasures that disrupts the supply chain's plans. In fact, the United States represents a small share of exports for the Italian and European steel industry, 1.8% and 11.1%, respectively, and the duties will therefore have little specific impact on steel. However, the supply chain is affected by the effects on products that contain steel and the indirect impact derived from the relocation of volumes from third countries that will look to Europe as a new outlet market," Norsa continued. In terms of prices, "commodities are experiencing a special moment. In the last year and a half we have seen iron ore prices fall and, between the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, stabilize below $100 a ton. Scrap has had a much steeper descent than expected. As a result, we come to Made in Steel wondering with respect to how long it will last and where this descent will take us," he pointed out. Meanwhile, the trend in finished products has followed that of raw materials: "After the peaks touched in 2021, we have seen a negative trend, with similar trends for Europe, North America, Italy and China until at least 2024. The arrival of Trump and trade tensions is pushing up the U.S. market, while the others are accentuating their bearish trends," he added. Despite the difficulties, "steel mills' production margins are recovering from the bottom touched in summer 2024, albeit remaining at low levels compared to 2023. The recovery is still not enough to give respite to the entire supply chain, but we are certainly seeing a turnaround that makes us arrive at Made in Steel with good news," he concluded.

MADE IN STEEL AWARDS 2025 - Since the 2007 edition, a technical jury has been awarding the Made in Steel Awards, prizes for exhibitors and stand builders who demonstrate their ability to convey their message with originality and clarity, to present their products and services effectively and innovatively. There will be two award categories: Best Communication Stand, for those who know how to carry out the most effective communication using the set-up; Most Friendly Stand, for the most welcoming set-up.

For the second consecutive edition, the Honorable Mention for Sustainability will be awarded to the exhibitor who can best put the themes of sustainability and circular economy at the center of the set-up. In awarding the honorable mention, the jury will take into account both the choices made in the set-up phase (the selection of materials, having favored recycled and recyclable materials, the reuse of materials already used for other events) and in the construction of the narrative and experience offered to visitors.

SUSTAINABILITY - Since the last edition, the 2023 edition, Made in Steel has been certified by RINA for sustainable event design and management according to the international ISO 20121 standard. The 2025 edition of the Conference & Exhibition is also organized according to the same standard, demonstrating a growing commitment to reducing the environmental footprint and maximizing positive social impact. Practices in sustainability are continuously improving by identifying and monitoring clear goals for each ESG area. For the organization of this eleventh edition, environmentally, for example, increasingly sustainable mobility and reduced consumption are being promoted.

OPERATORS' EXPECTATIONS - Uncertainty, global production overcapacity and growing protectionism. These are three of the main concerns that have been expressed by industry representatives.

Federacciai director general Flavio Bregant said: "We are facing a complex moment: the market phase is characterized by a great global overcapacity in production, and this has originated a very strong competitive tension. China, in particular, has seen its production drop, but at the same time domestic consumption has dropped the most. It is no coincidence that 2024 was a record year for Chinese exports, which put pressure on global markets, partly due to misbehavior." This was compounded by "growing protectionism. Not only Trump's tariffs, but also the trade restrictions adopted by many other countries. These measures are directly affecting the steel industry, particularly those companies that have locked contracts and firm goods in stock; they will also have much stronger indirect effects. Think what the distortions of trade flows to the European Union caused by the closure of major markets will cause. Hence the great need for defense of sectors considered strategic by pate of Europe. For these reasons we are acting alongside Eurofer to obtain concrete plans to protect steel. Therefore, we will be present at Made in Steel to listen to the companies present, to make it clear that we are there and we are interacting with the institutions."

According to Assofermet Director General Luca Carbonoli, "trade tensions are causing a general economic slowdown that is likely to again lead to a drop in demand for steel. A drop in consumption that would have a very heavy impact on the entire supply chain, but which is not taken into account by the European Steel Action Plan. In our view, it represents a crucial point for the sector and urgent measures are needed to make sure that companies stay producing in Europe and consume European steel. We therefore hope that the Action Plan will be implemented quickly and taking into account the needs of all individual parts of the steel supply chain, with stimulus measures also aimed at downstream sectors that have steel as one of their main raw materials." Made in Steel, will therefore be an opportunity for Assofermet to "meet with all steel distribution, trading and processing companies to discuss all these topical and prospective issues. And we will also do this during the association's annual meeting to be held in the Steel Talking Arena on May 7."

Made in Steel is also a moment of meeting and dialogue with the steel sector for the world of credit, as BPER Banca's Chief Corporate & Investment Banking Officer Marco Mandelli pointed out, "we can only be close to an industry as strategic and fundamental to the economy as steel. In this sector, BPER Bank allocates more than 2.5 billion euros in credit facilities. It is crucial for us to increasingly understand the dynamics and cyclicality that characterize the steel industry. We believe that the more cyclical an industry is, the more dialogue and collaboration between bank and business is needed so that we can understand trends and identify future prospects together. We give the steel industry several merits, particularly that of having invested so much in the past. Above all, we believe that companies in this industry know how to deal with difficulties and also grasp the positive aspects, managing to capitalize and invest. Therefore, today the Italian steel industry is stronger, more competitive and more able to withstand negative times, such as the current one. We don't have great visibility on the future now, but we believe that 2025 can be a better year than 2024."