Global Stainless Steel Output, Demand See Sharp Rebound in 2016

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest yearly statistics published by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) indicates that world production and consumption of stainless steel rebounded significantly in 2016. It must be noted that demand and output had registered decline in 2015. As per data, production grew by nearly 10%, whereas consumption recorded 9% year-on-year growth in 2016.

According to the Annual Stainless Steel Report released by WBMS, the global stainless steel production surged higher by 10% to 45.814 million tonnes in 2016. The output growth was mainly driven by increased production volumes by China. The Chinese stainless steel output has soared by over 60% during the past decade. Also, the country’s output has almost trebled when compared with 1997 levels.

The stainless steel demand totaled 35.153 million tonnes during the year, higher by almost 9% when matched with the previous year. The jump in demand was mainly due to the strong rise in stainless steel consumption in China. The Chinese demand surged higher by 14.2% to total 16.3 million tonnes in 2016. The country accounted for 46% of the global stainless steel demand. Indian demand reported modest growth of 7.6% to total 2.4 million tonnes. South Korean demand rose by 3.3% over the previous year. Japan too reported growth in demand as compared with demand decline reported in 2015. The strong rise in demand in countries like Germany and Italy resulted in 4% jump in stainless steel demand growth in the Europe. The US consumption remained unchanged when matched with 2015.

WBMS report states that exports of stainless steel products covering slabs, blooms, billets, welded tubes, pipes etc., surged higher by nearly 6% in 2016. It must be noted that the exports had declined by 2.3% in 2015. China emerged as the single largest exporter of various categories of stainless steel products during the year. The country accounted for 43% of global slab exports, 32% of hot-rolled exports and 29% of seamless tubes exports. The Chinese share of world cold rolled sheet and strip export was 15%. The exports by the country totaled 1.334 million tonnes, closely followed by Taiwan with 784,000 tonnes.

The latest figures released by the International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) suggest that global stainless steel production increased considerably by 14.5% during the initial quarter of the current year. The production totaled 11.763 million tonnes in Jan-Mar ’17, as compared with the output of 10.274 million tonnes during the corresponding quarterly period in 2016.