Global stainless steel crude production for the first half of this year increased by 4.6% compared with that produced in the first half of 2012, preliminary figures released by the International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) have shown.
Total production for the first half of the year amounted to 18.6-million tons, 800 000 t more than that produced during the first half of the previous year, the industry body said.
It noted, however, that analysis by region and by individual countries had shown mixed results, ranging between -15% and 15%.
Western Europe and Africa experienced a shrinkage in stainless steel production during the first six months of the year, with total production decreasing by 4% to 4.1-million tons.
“In this area, there was split development showing production changes from 2% to -15% after the first six months of 2013,” the ISSF added.
Meanwhile, in the Americas region, stainless crude steel production decreased by 1.9% to 1.2-million tons in the first half of the year.
Production in the eastern Europe region showed an increase of 12.4%, which was mainly owing to the strong performance of Russia.
Further, in Asia, excluding China, stainless crude steel production decreased by 3.7% to 4.3-million tons.
“There was a mixed performance among the individual Asian countries in the period under review. While India showed increased production volumes, stainless crude steel production decreased in Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
“China increased its stainless steel production in the period under review by 15.1% to 8.8-million tons,” the ISSF said, adding that Asia now accounted for about 70% of the world’s stainless crude steel production.