1.Global stainless steel demand continues to grow, with Asia-Pacific leading other regions in terms of demand growth rate
In terms of global demand, according to Steel & Metal Market Research, the global actual stainless steel demand in 2017 was about 41.2 million tonnes, up 5.5% year-on-year. Among them, the fastest growth rate was in Asia and the Pacific, reaching 6.3%; the demand in the Americas increased by 3.2%; and the demand in Europe, the Middle East and Africa increased by 3.4%.
From the global stainless steel downstream demand industry, metal products industry is the largest industry in the global stainless steel downstream demand industry, accounting for 37.6% of the total consumption of stainless steel; other industries, including mechanical engineering accounted for 28.8%, building construction accounted for 12.3%, motor vehicles and components accounted for 8.9%, electric machinery accounted for 7.6%.
2.Asia and Western Europe is the world’s stainless steel trade is the most active region, trade friction is also increasingly intense
Asian countries and Western European countries are the most active region of international trade in stainless steel. The largest amount of stainless steel trade is between Asian countries and Western European countries, with a trade volume of 5,629,300 tonnes and 7,866,300 tonnes respectively in 2017. In addition, in 2018, Asian countries exported a total of 1,930,200 tonnes of stainless steel to Western European countries and 553,800 tonnes of stainless steel to NAFTA countries. At the same time, Asian countries also imported 443,500 tonnes of stainless steel to Western Europe. 10,356,200 tonnes of stainless steel were exported and 7,639,100 tonnes of stainless steel were imported by Asian countries in 2018. Western European countries imported 9,946,900 tonnes of stainless steel and exported 8,902,200 tonnes of stainless steel in 2018.
In recent years, with the slowdown of the world economy and the rise of nationalism, the world trade friction has obvious upward momentum, in the stainless steel trade field is also more obvious. Especially due to the rapid development of China’s stainless steel industry, suffered by the stainless steel trade friction is also more prominent. In the past three years, China’s stainless steel industry suffered the world’s major countries anti-dumping and countervailing investigations, including not only Europe and the United States and other developed regions, but also India, Mexico and other developing countries.
These trade friction cases have a certain impact on China’s stainless steel export trade. Take the United States on March 4, 2016 on the origin of China’s stainless steel plate and strip launched anti-dumping and countervailing investigations as an example. 2016 January-March China to the United States exports of stainless steel flat rolled products (width ≥ 600mm) the average number of 7,072 tonnes / month, and when the United States launched an anti-dumping, countervailing investigations, China’s stainless steel flat rolled products exported in April 2016 quickly fell to 2,612 tons, May further drop to 2,612 tons. 2612 tonnes in April 2016, and further fell to 945 tonnes in May. Until June 2019, China’s stainless steel flat rolled products exports to the U.S. have been hovering below 1,000 tonnes/month, down more than 80% compared with the anti-dumping and countervailing investigations before the announcement.
Post time: Aug-25-2023