Record Output Levels of Stainless Steel for 2011-2012

It has been predicted that the total world crude stainless steel production for 2011 will be around 32.5 million tonnes and this in the grand scale of things would be an all-time high tonnage.

The previous record which was set just last year in 2010 would be broken and we would see a 4.5% rise. Previously there was an even higher level of stainless steel production anticipated but since the economy has taken longer than planned to recover from the recession this has had to be revised downward.

In 2012 though we have something to look forward too; a forecast of around 7.1% is expected which will give an annual crude stainless steel outturn of 34.8 million tonnes.

Although the demand for crude stainless steel has been low especially when compared against what was predicted the second and third quarters of the year has held some promising predictions.

A 13% rise is predicted for China’s annual output with a further increase of 11% anticipated in 2012. Taiwanese producers are fast losing their market share to China and South Korea who is expanding through aggressive selling and constant export volumes, Taiwan had the lowest annual figure for many years.

In regard to Japan their stainless steel production is remaining at a fairly decent level following the natural disaster which occurred earlier this year.

The United States had high predictions backing them up but something went wrong and they came out with a much lower volume of stainless steel production than what was expected. There was subdued production throughout summer and thus the result was a 3.6% decrease when compared to last year.

Forecast stainless steel output for 2011 is 1% up from 2010 but this is still less than 81% from the peak which happened in 2006.

There is still a long way to go!