More pain to come for Europe's wounded steelmakers

London

THE fate of some huge blast furnaces in the Belgian city of Liege a few years ago may offer clues to where the rest of Europe's beleaguered steel-making industry is headed - more doom and gloom. Known for its bike race and meatballs, Liege was home to a steel mill owned by ArcelorMittal, the world's top producer. While the city had been a metal-making hub since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the ageing plant was too far from raw materials and spread out along kilometres of the Meuse River, making it uncompetitive after the global financial crisis sapped demand. In 2013, ArcelorMittal tired of losses and shut much of the facility.

Since then, things have gotten worse. China, which accounts for half the globe's output, is exporting the most on record as its own demand slows. That means more supply to compete with European producers who can't make money at current prices and already aren't using about 30 per cent of their capacity. Since the 2008 financial crisis, more than 75,000 steel jobs were lost, or 20 per cent of the in…