October 07, 2008

Global SS production in 2007 down by 2.9% YoY

According to preliminary figures released today by the International Stainless Steel Forum, global stainless steel production was 27.6 million tonnes in 2007 down by 2.9% YoY. The decrease in production occurred in most stainless steel producing countries and regions. Only the Asia region and China showed increases in production for the year.

ISSF said that the decline in 2007 follows a 17% increase in production during 2006. That increase was driven by distributors and service centres who were increasing their stocks of stainless steel.

ISSF said that “Stainless steel production in Asia grew by 6.3% YoY to 16 million tonnes in 2007. Asia now produces 60% of all the stainless steel in the world. The driving force was China up by 36% YoY which is again the leading stainless producing country. China produced 7.2 million tonnes of stainless crude steel, increasing significantly the gap to the next largest producer, Japan by 3.7 million tonnes. The strong increase in Chinese production is partially based on new capacity that came on-stream during 2007. All other Asian stainless steel producing countries suffered production declines of between 3% and 15%.”

ISSF added that “The Western Europe/Africa region reported a 13.3% decrease in stainless steel production. Total volume for 2007 was 8.7 million tonnes.

It said that “Production in The Americas decreased by 15.2% YoY to 2.5 million tonnes. The Central and Eastern Europe region produced a total of 365,000 tonnes of stainless steel in 2007. This was 3% lower than the previous year. The region is of minor importance in global stainless steel production.