Global Stainless Steel Production Reaches 32.1 Million Mt Creating New Record in 2011
The International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) has released preliminary data which indicates that stainless steel production grew by 3.3% in 2011. Total production was 32.1 million metric tonnes (Mt), a new record for a single year. Excluding China, production in the Asia region declined by 2.7% to 8.8 Mt during 2011. In Taiwan, production declined by 20.6%. Production in Japan declined by 5.3% to 3.2 Mt. By comparison, Korea (+5.3%) and India (+7.0%) increased their production of stainless during the year.
China has remained the driving force in stainless steel production with growth of 11.9% in 2011. The country produced 12.6 Mt of stainless during the year. Including China, Asian production now accounts for 66.5% of all the stainless steel produced in the world.
Stainless steel production in the Western Europe/Africa region largely stagnated during 2011 with volume of just under 7.9 Mt. Growth rates of individual countries in the region ranged from -5% to +18%. In the Central and Eastern Europe region, production rose by 14.1% to 0.4 Mt. In the Americas, stainless production dropped to 2.5 Mt, a decrease of 4.7% compared to 2010.
Over the past few years, theChromium-manganese grades have become increasingly important in this time. More recently, production of chromium grades has also increased. Based on the data from ISSF's stainless steel producing members, the market share of stainless steel production by grade is as follows: Chromium-nickel steels (300 series)-58.2﹪, Chromium steels (400 series)-28﹪, Chromium-manganese steels (200 series)-13.8﹪.
