Posted on 31 Jul 2025
China's total crude stainless steel output for the first half of this year came in at 20.2 million tonnes, rising by 991,600 tonnes or 5.2% from the same period last year, according to the latest data released by the Stainless Steel Council of China Iron and Steel Association (CSSC) on July 29.
While production of all series stainless steel increased by varying degrees in H1, the output of 300-series stainless recorded the largest on-year rise of 5.9%, the CSSC data showed.
China's H1 crude stainless steel output (Unit: million tonnes)
Product | H1 | Y-o-Y (%) | Share of total |
200-series | 5.85 | 3.61% | 28.99% |
300-series | 10.29 | 5.91% | 51.05% |
400-series | 3.79 | 5.33% | 18.80% |
Source: CSSC
Also, China produced 234,110 tonnes of high-end duplex stainless over January-June, marking a significant growth of 22,312 tonnes or 10.5% on year, according to the association's statistics.
On the demand side, China's apparent consumption of stainless steel in H1 also increased to reach 16.57 million tonnes, up by 497,800 tonnes or 3.1% on year, though the growth lagged behind that of crude stainless steel output, the release showed.
In foreign trade, China exported 2.5 million tonnes of stainless steel products in H1, higher by 135,300 tonnes or 5.7% on year, while its total import volume of stainless steel dropped sharply by 280,300 tonnes or 25.3% on year to 827,500 tonnes, with the tonnage imported from Indonesia sliding by 262,700 tonnes or 27.5% on year to 693,400 tonnes, according to CSSC.
In H1, Chinese stainless steel prices generally hovered at low levels, given imbalanced supply-demand dynamics as the country's stainless steel output stayed high, Mysteel Global noted.
By the end of June, the spot price of 304/2B 2*1240mm stainless cold-rolled coil in Wuxi in East China's Jiangsu province was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 12,650/tonne ($1,763/t) in-warehouse and including the 13% VAT, lower by Yuan 350/t from the beginning of this year.
Source:Mysteel Global
