Global stainless steel production up 7.4%

The International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) has released production statistics for the nine-month period in 2017. According to the ISSF, global stainless steel production for the nine months of 2017 was 36.08 million tonnes, up 7.4% over the same period in 2016. Stainless steel production in the third quarter was 12.717 million tonnes, up 10.2% compared to 11.542 million tonnes recorded in the second quarter of the year.

Stainless steel production in the European Region increased slightly by 1.7% over the previous year. In January-September 2017, the region produced 5.544 million tons against 5,533 million tons in the same period last year. At the same time, quarterly production fell sharply from 1.902 million tonnes to 1.662 million tonnes.

US stainless steel output recorded the biggest jump in the first nine months of 2017. Production output amounted to 2,100 million tons, up 14.8% from 1.830 million tons in January-September 2016. However, the quarterly production volume for the country was with a slight decrease from 699,000 tons in the second quarter to 680,000 tons in the third quarter of this year.

Stainless steel production in China recorded significant growth during the three quarters of 2017. Production volume amounted to 19.669 million tons, an increase of 8.8% compared to a total production of 18.086 million tons in January-September 2016. Production in the second quarter of this year also grew by almost 18% from the previous quarter to 7.256 million tonnes from 6.127 million tonnes.

Production in the Asian region, excluding China and South Korea, rose 4.2% from 5.686 million tonnes in January-September last year to 5.928 million tonnes. Quarterly production increased slightly in the third quarter of this year compared to the second quarter of 2017. Production in the Asian region during the third quarter of 2017 was 1.978 million tonnes.

The rest of the world's producers, including Brazil, Russia, South Africa, South Korea and Indonesia, accounted for about 8% of global production. On an annualized basis, production grew by 12.4%. Quarterly output was 1,340 million tonnes in the third quarter of 2017, while cumulative production for the first three quarters was 2,842 million tonnes, ISSF noted.