[SMM data] Global stainless steel production increased 3.4% in the first three quarters of 2019. China's production capacity showed a low growth rate.

SMM12, March 9: recently, statistics released by the International stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) on December 12 show that global stainless steel crude steel production totaled 39.809 million tons in the first three quarters of 2019, up 3.4 percent from 38.486 million tons in the same period last year. From a subregional point of view, with the exception of mainland China, which grew by about 11.7 to 22.49 million tons compared with the same period last year, the other major regions all showed year-on-year declines of about 7.2 to 5.234 million tons in Europe and 7.5 to 2.019 million tons in the United States. Asia, excluding mainland China, South Korea and Indonesia (mainly Japan, India and Taiwan), fell about 5.4 to 5.879 million tons from the same period last year. Elsewhere (Brazil, Russia, South Africa, South Korea and Indonesia) fell about 3.1 per cent to 4.188 million tonnes from a year earlier.

In the third quarter of 2019, the global output of stainless steel and crude steel continued to increase to 13.693 million tons, an increase of nearly 2.2 percent over the previous quarter. Of this total, with the exception of Europe, which continued to decline by about 19 per cent to 1.492 million tons, the rest of the region grew by about 3.4 per cent to 669000 tons in the United States and nearly 6.1 to 8.135 million tons in mainland China. Asia, excluding mainland China, South Korea and Indonesia, grew nearly 2.2 to 1.98 million tons month-on-month, and the rest of the region grew nearly 8.5 to 1.417 million tons month-on-month.

According to SMM, China's stainless steel production capacity increased at a low rate from 2017 to 2019. On the one hand, the rise of Indonesia's stainless steel industry has a negative impact on Chinese manufacturers. On the other hand, economic growth has changed from high-speed to "medium-speed" growth, and some downstream consumer sectors, such as China's real estate market and the automobile industry, have bid farewell to rapid growth, resulting in a slight decline in the growth rate of stainless steel consumption in China, which fell to 4.5 percent in 2019. SMM estimates that China's planned new stainless steel production capacity in the next three years will be about 16.5 million tons, depending on the steel mill's capital and actual capacity replacement. In the process of stainless steel production capacity expansion, the integration of steelmaking process is still the main competitiveness.

Scan 2D code, apply to join SMM metal communication group, please indicate company + name + main business