China’s stainless steel exports fell by 30.8% y/y in January–May

In the first five months of 2026, stainless steel imports into China totalled 634.8 thousand tonnes, down 11.6 per cent year-on-year. Exports of steel products over the same period fell more sharply — by 30.8 per cent compared with last year — to 1.6 million tonnes. This is reported by SteelOrbis.

The net export (the surplus of exports over imports) of stainless steel for the period January–May stood at 978 thousand tonnes, a 29.8% year-on-year increase.

In May alone, mixed trends were observed:

• Imports totalled 91.1 thousand tonnes, showing a sharp fall of 46.3% compared with April this year and 27.2% year-on-year.
• Exports reached 415.4 thousand tonnes. This is 5.3% higher than the previous month, but 5.05% lower than in May last year.
• Net exports in May stood at 324.3 thousand tonnes, which is 4.18% higher than the figure for May last year.

The raw materials segment is showing positive year-on-year growth. In the first five months of the year, imports of stainless steel scrap into China rose by 75% year-on-year to 78.9 thousand tonnes.

In particular, scrap imports in May totalled 17.7 thousand tonnes. Despite an 8.7% decline compared with April, this figure was 34.1% higher than in May last year.

As reported by GMK Center, global stainless steel production in the first quarter of 2026 rose by 2.5% year-on-year – to 15.8 million tonnes.  Asia produced 13.4 million tonnes of stainless steel in January–April, which is 3.3% more than in the first quarter of 2025. In particular, China accounted for 9.84 million tonnes (+4.3% year-on-year).