China saw its stainless steel exports fall by 17.6% y/y in 1H2026

In the first half of 2026, China reduced its stainless steel exports by 17.6% year-on-year to 2.06 million tonnes. This was reported by Mysteel, citing data from the country’s General Administration of Customs.

Industry sources attribute the decline to weak overseas demand and rising trade barriers. With regard to the latter, this specifically refers to new EU safeguard quotas and the European CBAM, as well as anti-dumping duties in several Asian markets.

Stainless steel imports into China in January–June fell by 8.5% year-on-year – to 757,000 tonnes.

In June alone, the country exported 446,000 tonnes of this product (+7.3% month-on-month and +14.4% year-on-year). Stainless steel imports for the month totalled 120,000 tonnes (+32% month-on-month and +9.8% year-on-year).

It should be noted that in the first half of 2026, China reduced its steel exports by 5.6% year-on-year to 54.87 million tonnes. In June alone, the figure stood at 10.32 million tonnes, down 0.2% compared with the previous month, but up 6.6% year-on-year.

Total steel imports into the country in January–June amounted to 2.69 million tonnes (-11.3% year-on-year).

As reported by GMK Center, China reduced its steel production by 3% year-on-year in January–June 2026, to 499.95 million tonnes. In June alone, the figure stood at 83.67 million tonnes, up 0.4% year-on-year.