Meanwhile, preliminary figures released by the ISSF show that worldwide stainless steel crude steel production increased by 3.6 percent in the first nine months of 2011 compared to the corresponding period of 2010.
Excluding China, stainless steel production in Asia decreased by 1.9 percent year on year to 6.6 million mt in the first nine months of 2011, while China increased its stainless steel production by 12.8 percent in the first three quarters of 2011 to 9.4 million mt. The country now accounts for around 39 percent of the world's stainless steel production.
The stainless steel production of the western Europe/Africa regions in the first three quarters of 2011 dropped slightly by 0.7 percent year on year to 6 million mt.
In The Americas region, stainless crude steel production decreased by 5.5 percent year on year to 1.9 million mt over the first three quarters of the year. Production in the central and eastern Europe region showed an increase of 20.4 percent year on year, rising to just 0.3 million mt.
Stainless crude steel production (in ‘000 metric tons):
Region |
Quarter 1 |
% y-o-y change |
Quarter 2 |
% y-o-y change |
Quarter 3 |
% y-o-y change |
|||
2010 |
2011 |
2010 |
2011 |
2010 |
2011 |
||||
2,081 |
2,216 |
6.5 |
2,222 |
2,080 |
-6.4 |
1,715 |
1,683 |
-1.9 |
|
Central/ eastern Europe |
73 |
85 |
16.8 |
89 |
114 |
26.9 |
89 |
104 |
16.8 |
USA |
728 |
779 |
6.9 |
671 |
598 |
-10.9 |
641 |
553 |
-13.8 |
Asia (excluding China) |
2,235 |
2,238 |
0.2 |
2,278 |
2,134 |
-6.3 |
2,205 |
2,220 |
0.7 |
2,607 |
3,076 |
18.0 |
2,862 |
3,129 |
9.3 |
2,844 |
3,170 |
11.5 |
|
World total |
7,724 |
8,395 |
8.7 |
8,122 |
8,054 |
-0.8 |
7,494 |
7,730 |
3.1 |