SteelOrbis Shanghai
According to the statistics released by the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), China's stainless steel output reached 3.5 million mt during the first half of 2007, up 54 percent year on year.
During the same period, imports of stainless steel decreased 25.45 percent to 956,500 mt, including 715,000 mt of stainless coil/sheet; on the other hand, exports of stainless steel rose 224.44 percent to 833,800 mt, including 617,000 mt of stainless coil/sheet. China's self-sufficiency rate as regards stainless steel consumption in the first half of 2007 increased to 70 percent; thus China has made the critical shift from being dependent on imports to being mostly self-reliant. In 2006, average stainless consumption per capita in China stood at 4.6 kg; in 2007, the figure will have moved very near to the world average world.
In July, China's stainless sheet/coil imports reached 123,000 mt, up 7.7 percent month on month, while exports dipped 17 percent month on month to 72,000 mt. In 2006 China ranked first in the world in apparent consumption and production of stainless steel. Of China's production capacity of 10 million mt, 60 percent belongs to four enterprises - TISCO (three million mt), Baosteel (two million mt), ZPSS (600,000 mt) and LISCO (800,000 mt). These figures give a clear idea of the high level of concentration of stainless steel production in China.
China's stainless steel industry is suffering from overcapacity, following the same problem which plagued crude steel. At a recent international conference, CISA vice president Wu Jianchang remarked that China's investment in stainless steel has exceeded current demand and even the demand of the near future. Therefore, instead of making more investments, Mr Wu suggested China should attach greater importance to boosting stainless steel consumption, especially on the domestic front. In order to achieve this it would be necessary, first, to consolidate the existing market; second, to broaden the market and extend stainless products to rural areas; third, to improve and meet the needs for industrial equipment manufacture, such as in the fields of electricity generation, chemical-petroleum, IT, transportation, etc, as well as to promote stainless steel use in construction.