Brussels, April 11, 2024 — The World Stainless Steel Association released data for the full year of 2023, indicating a year-on-year increase of 4.6% in global stainless steel crude steel production, reaching 58.44 million metric tons. Among them, apart from Mainland China, which saw a growth of approximately 12.6% to 36.676 million tons, production in several other major regions declined: Europe decreased by around 6.2% to 5.902 million tons, the United States decreased by approximately 9.6% to 1.824 million tons, and excluding Mainland China, South Korea, and Indonesia, Asia (mainly India, Japan, and Chinese Taipei) decreased by about 7.2% to 6.880 million tons, while other regions (Indonesia, South Korea, Brazil, Russia, South Africa) decreased by approximately 5.2% to 7.163 million tons. In 2023, Mainland China’s share of global stainless steel crude steel production reached close to 62.8%, an increase of about 4.4 percentage points from the previous year.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, global stainless steel crude steel production was mainly affected by Mainland China, declining by nearly 2.2% quarter-on-quarter to 14.773 million tons. Among them, Mainland China decreased by nearly 9.8% quarter-on-quarter to 8.997 million tons, the United States decreased slightly by close to 0.5% quarter-on-quarter to 440,000 tons, while Europe increased by nearly 18.3% quarter-on-quarter to 1.502 million tons, and excluding Mainland China, South Korea, and Indonesia, Asia increased by about 20% quarter-on-quarter to 1.943 million tons, and other regions increased by nearly 5.2% quarter-on-quarter to 1.891 million tons.
