Stainless steel imports expand 55% in Jul as volumes from Indonesia quadruple

SHANGHAI, Aug 27 (SMM) – China’s imports of stainless steel rose 55.33% from June to 73,900 mt in July, showed data from China Customs, as materials from Indonesia soared 300% after local cold rolling lines broke down.

Indonesian stainless steel imports accounted for 35%, or 25,976 mt of the total for July. A greater amount of Indonesian hot-rolled stainless steel entered China last month, through processing trade to avoid anti-dumping duties.

China’s imports of stainless steel shrank 43.71% year on year to 690,800 mt in the first seven months of this year, with imports of Indonesian materials down 61% to 317,300 mt.

Customs data also showed that exports of stainless steel rose 16.24% from a month ago but declined 3.11% from a year ago, to stand at 329,700 mt in July.

Exports in January-July shrank 19.14% year on year to 2.03 million mt.

This brought net exports in the January-July period to 1.34 million mt, with a year-over-year increase of 4.41%.