The Brussels-based International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) has announced that stainless crude steel production for the first nine months of 2005 was 18.4 million metric tons, showing an increase of 1.1 percent compared to the same period in 2004.
The growth in production took place in Asia, which has produced 9.4 million metric tons of crude stainless steel, up by 7.8 percent over the first nine months of 2004. The main contributors there were China and India, with other Asian producers are showing flat or lower production figures.
In North and South America, production came in at 2.1 million tons of crude stainless steel for the first three quarters of 2005, showing a decline of 5.4 percent compared to the first nine months of 2004.
Stainless steel production in the Western Europe/Africa region was 6.7 million metric tons for the time period, showing a 4.8 percent reduction from the same period of 2004.
Production in Central and Eastern Europe fell most dramatically in the first three quarters, dropping 16.3 percent compared to the same period of 2004.
Analysis of the 2005 quarter by quarter shows a clear downward direction in crude stainless steel production. At the end of Quarter 1 of 2005, global output was 7.5 percent higher than for the same period of 2004. Quarter 2 showed an increase, but of just 3.6 percent compared to the same quarter of 2004.
And in the third quarter of 2005 there was a significant decline in crude stainless steel production when compared to the same period of 2004. Production in Quarter 3 of 2005 declined 8.2 percent compared to Quarter 3 of 2004.