ISSF: Global Stainless Steel Foreign Trade In 2019 Decreased By 6.8% Year On Year

According to ISSF data, the total global stainless steel export volume in 2019 was 19.3 million tons, down 6.8% from 20.72 million tons in 2018.

Except for the increase in stainless steel exports in Eastern Europe by 2.6% year-on-year, exports from other regions have declined to varying degrees. The North American Free Trade Zone has experienced the largest decline, with a year-on-year decrease of 24.5% to 1.6 million tons.

This also reflects to a certain extent the impact of international trade protectionism on the global stainless steel pipe fittings supplier. The global export volume of stainless steel scrap in 2019 was 5.94 million tons, down 3.0% from 6.13 million tons in 2018.

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However, the situation in 2020 is not optimistic. Due to the global COVID-19 epidemic, many companies have made adjustments:

Recently, South Korean POSCO raised its 300 series stainless steel prices by 100,000 won/ton (about US$83.17/ton) in July, and said that due to the reduction in demand in the epidemic and the difficulty of cooperating with customers, its stainless steel prices have been since March. It has remained unchanged since then, but due to the heavy burden of raw material costs, it is now necessary to choose to increase prices.

Since March, the nickel price of LME (London Metal Exchange) has continued to strengthen, rising to US$16,000/tonne at the end of June. In addition, due to tight supply of ferrochromium and power shortages in South Africa, the benchmark price of ferrochromium rose by 13% year-on-year in the second quarter, and is expected to rise further in the third quarter.

Considering the strengthening of raw material prices, some stainless steel producers have raised the prices of some stainless steel products in July shipments. However, some stainless steel producers in the European Union, such as Finland’s Outokumpu and Aperam, have slightly reduced their stainless steel surcharges in July.

In the past 3 months, the prices of 300 series stainless steels in Outokumpu, Finland have still increased by 60 Euros/ton (about 68 US dollars/ton), and the prices of 400 series stainless steels have increased by 41 Euros/ton (about 46 US dollars/ Tons); North American Stainless Steel (NAS) 300 series stainless steel prices rose by 105 US dollars / ton, 400 series stainless steel prices rose by 64 US dollars / ton.