Year 2018: production of stainless steel increased by 5,5% to 50,7 million tonnes

ISSF Analysts calculated the worldwide production of stainless steel in 2018 at 5,7 million tonnes, which represents a 5,5 % increase compared to the previous year.

China was again the draft horse of strong development. However, the production growth of stainless steel was rather restrained compared with previous year.

Asia - reported in the submitted statistics excluding China and South Korea - recorded an increase of 2,1 % to almost 8,2 million tonnes, the United States of America then 2,0 % to 2,8 million tonnes.

The worst results had Europe, where total stainless steel production grew by only 0.1 % last year to arround 7,3 million tonnes.

On the other hand, the countries producing stainless steel belonging to the Other category (Brazil, Russia, South Africa and Indonesia) showed an increase of 36 % (with a share of around 11 % in global production).

The analysts initially counted on even higher production of stainless steel. These expectations were not met due to weakening dynamics. Indeed, in the fourth quarter of 2018, worldwide stainless steel production fell by almost 6 %.

Of course, the stainless steel industry remains the largest nickel buye (and it is expected that the stainless steel industry will be on top for a few more years before it will be replaces by the
manufacture of electric vehicle batteries).

For this year count MEPS analysts expect with further increase in global stainless steel production to more than 54 million tonnes (according to published results this outlook seems to be too optimistic).

Worldwide production of stainless steel in t tonnes

Source: International Stainless Forum (ISSF)

Source: Focus Nerez 03/2019