2008年12月19日星期五

Global stainless steel output up by 6.8% YoY in Q3 2008

Global stainless steel output up by 6.8% YoY in Q3 2008
According to International Stainless Steel Forum data, global production of stainless steel rose by 6.8% YoY in the third quarter of 2008 when compared to the corresponding period last year with a production of 6.3 million tonnes.Growth came mainly from Europe and the Americas. Asian production remained flat with China showing a decline in stainless steel production compared to both the previous quarter and, for the first time, when compared to the same quarter in the previous year.The Western Europe and Africa region shows the most significant increase in production during 2008. Production in the region has reached 6.8 million tonnes for the year to date, a 4.9% YoY increase on the same period of 2007.Production in Americas region decreased in the same period by 2.1% to 1.9 million tonnes. The Central & Eastern Europe region increased production slightly on low volume. Production in the Asia region has reached 12.1 million tonnes for the year to date, a drop of 1% YoY compared to the first 9 months of 2007.With the exception of China, all Asian countries have reduced their stainless production significantly. Even China, which produced 5.5 million tonnes of stainless in the first 3 quarters of 2008, could not compensate for the losses of the other countries in the region. Japanese production is down by 3% YoY to 2.9 million tonnes.The quarter by quarter figures have shown a clear upward direction in stainless steel production so far this year. After Quarter 1, global output was 2.8% lower than in the same period of 2007. By the end of Quarter 2 production was just 0.4% below the previous year. Production increased by 6.8% in Quarter 3. The trend is unlikely to be sustained in the final quarter of 2008 given the current global economic climate

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