Exclusive Global stainless steel production grew by 7% y/y in 2024

The key producer is China – 39.4 million tons

Global stainless steel production in 2024 increased by 7% compared to 2023 to 62.621 million tons. This is evidenced by the data of the non-profit organization World Stainless Association.

Over the year, Europe, including Ukraine, increased stainless steel production by 1.5% y/y – to 6.09 million tons. The United States increased its output by 6.9% y/y over 12 months – to 1.95 million tons.

In Asia, excluding China and South Korea, stainless steel production last year increased by 6.4% y/y – to 7.32 million tons, and China produced 39.44 million tons of stainless steel over the same period, up 7.5% y/y.

Other countries, such as Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, South Korea, and the Russian Federation, increased stainless steel production by 9.2% y/y – to 7.82 million tons.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, global stainless steel production increased by 4.9% q/q – to 16.45 million tons.

Europe decreased production by 7.4% q/q – to 1.39 million tons, while the United States decreased by 8.5% q/q – to 441 thousand tons. China increased its production by 8.5% q/q – to 10.74 million tons, Asia (excluding China) – by 8.5% q/q, to 1.93 million tons, and other countries – by 3.7% q/q, to 1.95 million tons.

Thus, the quarterly growth was provided by Asian countries, in particular, China, while other regions showed a decline in production in the fourth quarter. Europe and the United States showed the lowest year-on-year figures, while China and Asia showed the highest.

As GMK Center reported earlier, global stainless steel production in 2023 increased by 4.6% compared to 2022 to 58.4 million tons. Europe, including Ukraine, decreased its stainless steel production by 6.2% compared to 2022 to 5.9 million tons. The United States for the year decreased by 9.6% y/y – to 1.82 million tons, China – increased by 12.6% y/y – to 36.68 million tons.