Stainless steel output drops in 2023, except in China

The world’s stainless steel producers made 58.4 million metric tons of stainless products in 2023, marking a 4.6 increase compared with the prior year, according to the Brussels-based Worldstainless trade group.

As it has for several years running, China produced more than half of the world’s stainless steel in 2023. The more than 36.6 million metric tons made there represented about 63 percent of global output last year. That figure vastly outweighs the 1.82 million metric tons of stainless made in the United States in 2023, representing just 3.1 percent of the global total.

Despite economic data that portrays China’s growth as having slowed this decade, the nation was an outlier in achieving 12.6 percent year-on-year stainless steel production growth in 2023.

Every other region into which Worldstainless divides stainless steel production experienced a loss in output in 2023 compared with 2022.

In the U.S., output went down by 9.6 percent while in Europe it receded by 6.2 percent.

The organization lists production in an “Others” category consisting of Brazil, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa and South Korea as having 2023 output that dropped by 5.2 percent.

Finally, the Worldstainless Asia without China and South Korea region, which presumably includes India, Japan and several other countries, experienced a 7.2 percent decline in stainless steel output in 2023.

While stainless production in Europe and the U.S. largely is reliant on scrap metal as feedstock, production in China has remained heavily dependent on nickel pig iron and other materials made with mined nickel ore.