Antonio Marcegaglia, the chief executive of Italian Marcegaglia predicted that hot rolled coil (HRC) price should climb up by €20-€30/ton. He analyzed that this was mainly because Japan has been recovering from the disaster and China has been developing its housing plan. Also, the prices of tubes and other final steel products would hopefully outpace an expected increase in raw material prices,…

It might not be the first place you think of when it comes to high-tech machine tools, but Italy has a long history of producing equipment that helps manufacturing plants operate efficiently. For instance, The Sacmi Group has been doing it since 1919. The US$1.7 billion company provides machinery for the packaging, beverage, ceramics, food processing and plastics industries. The company has come…