Posted on 26 Jan 2024
Participants attending the stainless industry seminar held by the Stainless Steel Council of China Iron and Steel Association (CSSC) on January 23 agreed that China's stainless demand is likely to keep rising this year, as stainless consumption in many sectors such as drainage pipes, photovoltaic brackets, marine engineering, roofing applications and fine chemicals has been increasing.
Delegates attending the seminar in Beijing believed that the scope for development of the stainless sector in the coming term is vast, according to the CSSC's latest release on January 25.
Zhang Zhifang, the CSSC's executive chairman, pointed out that China produced about 36 million tonnes of stainless steel in 2023, accounting for about 63% of estimated global output last year and a new record high.
For full-year 2023, China exported 4.14 million tonnes of stainless products in total, lower by 9.1% from the previous year, while the country's total stainless imports registered 2.07 million tonnes, sliding by 37% on year, according to data released by the country's General Administration of Customs (GACC).
However, Zhang warned that maintaining the high export volume of stainless steel will be hard for China in the long term, due to rising trade friction surrounding stainless steel and the erection of trade barriers by many countries. China's stainless industry may face severe overcapacity in the future, he warned.
For now, the country's domestic stainless capacity is estimated at about 50 million tonnes/year, and the average capacity utilization rate is around 70%. For this year, about 13 million t/y of newly-added stainless capacity is scheduled to be put into operation, which may place more pressure on domestic stainless market, Zhang was quoted as saying.
He suggested that China's stainless industry should enhance innovation on all fronts, such as stainless production processes, identifying new product applications and intelligent development. In order to achieve 'green' sustainability, stainless producers should work with the upstream industry to calculate the carbon cost and learn from other industries to reduce carbon emissions, he added.
Meanwhile, Chinese stainless mills should constantly enhance their management level and industry self-discipline to improve their profitability, Zhang stressed in the meeting.
Source:Mysteel Global
