Voestalpine CEO says U.S. investments to stay high
FRANKFURT, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Austrian specialty steelmaker Voestalpine plans to keep investing heavily in the United States despite the strong U.S. dollar and low oil price, its chief executive said.
Wolfgang Eder said his company would invest about 250 million euros ($283 million) in the United States in each of the next two years, mainly in its new sponge-iron plant in Texas, and about 50-100 million euros per year thereafter.
Eder, who is also chairman of the World Steel Association, told journalists late on Monday in remarks embargoed for Tuesday he expected steel demand to grow by about 1-2 percent in Europe and worldwide this year.
The association in October forecast that growth in global apparent steel use - which excludes changes in stock levels - would remain stable at 2.0 percent this year. ($1 = 0.8834 euros) (Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Ludwig Burger)
