During this period, Europe, particularly Ukraine, reduced its stainless steel production by 13.4% compared to January-June 2022, totalling 3.14 million tonnes. The United States also produced 942 thousand tonnes in the first half of the year, down 13.5% y-o-y.
In Asia, excluding China and South Korea, stainless steel production in the January-June period totalled 3.32 million tonnes, down 14.6% from the same period in 2022. However, China increased its stainless steel production by 8.2% y-o-y, totalling 17.59 million tonnes in the same period.
Other countries such as Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, South Korea and Russia collectively reduced their stainless steel production by 1.7% y-o-y, bringing the total output to 3.46 million tonnes.
In the second quarter, world stainless steel production reached 14.76 million tonnes, up 7.8% from the previous quarter. Europe produced 1.49 million tonnes, down 8.8% y-o-y, while the US recorded 465 thousand tonnes (down 2.7% y-o-y). In contrast, China increased its production by 12.6% y-o-y to 9.31 million tonnes and Asia excluding China and South Korea produced 1.69 million tonnes, up 3.4% y-o-y.
As a result, China was the main driver of growth in global stainless steel production in the first half and second quarter of the year.
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