Stainless melt shop production edges lower

Global – Following a sharp drop between the second and third quarters, global stainless steel melt shop production totalled 31.277 million tonnes across the first nine months of 2015 – a reduction of 0.5% from the 31.426 million tonnes of the corresponding period in 2014, the International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) has reported.

The news has been released at the end of a difficult year for the stainless steel market, characterised by sharp declines in prices both for stainless product and for scrap. As reported in the December issue of Recycling International, 304 and 316 scrap values stood at, respectively, US$ 890-940 and US$ 1200-1250 per tonne in late November as compared to US$ 1400-1450 and US$ 1890-1940 one year earlier.

In the opening three quarters of 2015, stainless steel melt shop production fell 3.8% year on year to 5.734 million tonnes in Western Europe/Africa while Central/Eastern Europe recorded a decline of 7.1% to 198 000 tonnes.

Conversely, production climbed in the Americas (by 2.3% to 2.146 million tonnes) and in China (by 0.7% to 16.13 million tonnes). In the rest of Asia, however, the total fell 0.9% in the opening nine months of 2015 to 7.069 million tonnes, the ISSF notes.