Stainless Steel

摘要

The downturn in the stainless steel market has intensified over the last month. Efforts to cut production in order to reduce oversupply have increased, especially in Asia where the market has been slower to turn down. Up until now it has been the European and US mills that have borne the brunt of weaker market conditions. Indeed, production in these two regions declined by 9.7 percent and 8.8 percent respectively in the second quarter. This compares with gains in stainless output of 55.8 percent in China and 4.9 percent in Japan. North America first showed signs of slower growth in stainless demand and oversupply in the first quarter and concurrently service centres began running down inventories in anticipation of a price collapse. Production curtailment at the mill level was soon to follow. Slowing demand and surplus supply also emerged in Western Europe in the first quarter, exacerbated by large imports of stainless steel from China. European production cuts started in earnest in April and May. But until last month Asia had avoided the problems of oversupply by careful management of output across the domestic players (Japan) or voracious consumption combined with a high level of exports (China).