The world’s crude stainless steel output hit a new quarterly high of 14.5 million tonnes over January-March after having growing gradually since third quarter of 2020, in tandem with the recovery in demand worldwide, as the various economies have restarted since then, according to the latest data released by the Brussels-based International Stainless Steel Forum on June 8.
Global stainless output grew 24.7% on year or 2.7% higher on quarter for the first quarter of 2021, partly due to the low base one year ago when the COVID-19 attacked many countries severely as well as better demand from the end-users this year, the figures showed.
Among the major producing countries and continents, the U.S. and Asia excluding China and South Korea still posted on-year declines, according to the ISSF data.
The breakdowns showed that total stainless output from Brazil, Russia, South Africa, South Korea and Indonesia under “others” posted the sharpest on-year growth of 43.8% to 1.9 million tonnes, or the highest volume since ISSF commenced the survey in 2007, the forum shared.
As for China, it remained the world’s top stainless producer with 8.2 million tonnes for the first three months of 2021, accounting for 56.5% of the world’s total. The country’s stainless market is still with oversupply as over January-March, its apparent stainless consumption was assessed at 7.1 million tonnes in crude steel, though the growth was at 46.5% on year, far higher than the 36.9% on-year growth in output, Mysteel Global noted from the data of ISSF and the Stainless Steel Council of China Special Steel Enterprises Association.
The 0.5% on-quarter decline in stainless output was mainly due to the fact that many domestic stainless producers tend to conduct maintenance on their steelmaking facilities over the first quarter of a year when China usually celebrates the Chinese New Year around January-February, Mysteel Global understood.
World’s crude stainless steel output in Q1 2021
| Countries & Regions | Q1 (‘000 t) | QoQ (%) | YoY (%) |
| China | 8,198 | -0.5% | 36.9% |
| Europe | 1,909 | 11% | 5.3% |
| Others (Brazil, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Indonesia) | 1,901 | 7.7% | 43.8% |
| Asia (excluding China, South Korea) | 1,880 | 2.4% | -0.3% |
| U.S. | 624 | 9.7% | -0.4% |
| Total | 14,512 | 2.7% | 24.7% |
Source: ISSF
Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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