With its forbidding chimneys belching smoke into the Mediterranean air, the giant Taranto steelworks on the coastline of southern Italy makes an unprepossessing poster image for the long-awaited consolidation of Europe’s steel sector, the Financial Times reported. As the largest mill in Europe capable of making the metal, it should have benefited from the economies of scale that give an advantage in heavy manufacturing.

Industrial output across the 19 countries that make up the eurozone fell in June, official figures showed Monday, in a development that likely illustrates the export-sapping impact of the rising euro. The Eurostat statistics agency said output declined by 0.6 percent during the month, giving up half the previous month's gain, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story.

Portugal’s economic growth hit the brakes in the second quarter, in a surprise slowdown for one of the eurozone’s standout economies in recent months, the Financial Times reported. Gross domestic product expanded 0.2 per cent in the three months to June, down from 1 per cent at the start of the year and below a forecast of 0.6 per cent. It means year on year growth held steady at 2.8 per cent – still the best rate in a decade, according to stats office INE.

Container shipping groups will continue to do deals, leaving only five or six survivors in an industry that two years ago had 20 players, according to the chief executive of AP Moller-Maersk, the sector’s dominant company. Soren Skou told the Financial Times that the consolidation trend in the past 24 months that has seen eight of the top 20 container shipping groups be acquired or go bankrupt would continue, the Financial Times reported. “My prediction would be that the industry would consolidate further. A decade from now, we would be more in the five to six range,” he said.

Most experts debating bail-in and bail-out strategies agree that banks should build capital and shrink balance sheets as the best way to avoid a collapse and rebuild after one. But researchers are suggesting a more personalized version of that recipe that makes the difference between life and death for struggling firms, a Bloomberg View reported.

Denmark registered a surge in inflation in July, driven by a sharp rise in the cost of food, drink, restaurants and hotels, pushing the country’s consumer price index above its eurozone’s peers, the Financial Times reported. The leap from 0.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent in year-on-year inflation makes this the highest rate since December 2012 in a country where price rises have long been subdued with the help of its currency peg. Denmark’s central bank targets inflation at close to but below 2 per cent.

Irish banks are set to face mounting pressure from regulators to write off bad loans, a person familiar with the matter said. European authorities that now oversee the biggest Irish lenders have consistently pushed bankers to deal with the legacy of non-performing assets left over from the nation’s financial crash through measures such as loan sales, Bloomberg News reported.

Almost one in five German companies has had their bank trying to charge negative interest rates — meaning they would have to pay the lender for the privilege of keeping their money on deposit, the Financial Times reported. The findings of a survey by Ifo, the Munich-based think-tank, shows the widespread effect of the European Central Bank’s ultra-low interest rate policy on the corporate sector in Germany, the eurozone’s economic powerhouse.

The UK’s most senior supervisor of banks and insurers has given his starkest warning to date over the risks the financial system faces from a cliff-edge Brexit without a transition period, the Financial Times reported. Sam Woods, a deputy governor of the Bank of England, said an audit of worst-case contingency plans by banks and insurers had underlined fears of added cost and complexity for business and supervisors, should companies lose their EU “passport” with no time to adjust to a new regime.

Europe’s top official in charge of winding down failed banks has urged the EU to tighten restrictions on when governments can pump money into stricken lenders, in response to recent cases in Italy where senior bondholders were spared losses. Elke König, the head of the eurozone’s Single Resolution Board, told the Financial Times in an interview that state aid guidelines adopted by the European Commission in 2013 were in effect out of date, as the EU has since taken steps to make sure failed banks can be wound down without sparking a broader crisis, the Financial Times reported.