06/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - The forward programme for steel for 2001 is published in the Official Journal C 71. It mainly shows that consumption of steel in the EU should stabilise "at the previous year's record level", even if there is slowdown in the US economy. In the United States, it would increase by around 2%, in Latin America by 6% and in China by around 7%. Regarding the Central and Eastern European countries and the CIS, the programme points out that production is expected to increase in 2001by 2% and would continue to be exported for around 25% of the Community market, with domestic consumption progressively relatively slowly.