Stainless steel production

In the previous Stainless Steel & Special Alloys World Mirror, we forecast global stainless production for 2007 to be approximately 28.6 million tonnes, a total which would have been much the same as that for 2006. In reality, production reached only 27.9 million tonnes, with 58% or 16 million tonnes consisting of austenitic or nickel-bearing grades.

The real collapse in stainless production came in the second half of 2007 when the collapse of nickel prices was greeted almost with panic. This initiated a de-stocking phase of more than 1.7 million tonnes of material during this period.

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