The International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) expects that stainless crude steel production in 2007 will be higher than the record-level of production in 2006, mostly driven by recovery from 2005 and some restocking. High raw material prices, especially for nickel, encourage ISSF to promote ferritic grades as an economic and effective solution for the main applications of stainless steel: a book “The Ferritic Solution” is now available. The forecast was released during ISSF’s Annual Conference in Kyoto, Japan. ISSF expects that global stainless crude steel production will reach 29.8 million metric tons (mmt) in 2007. This represents a rise of 5.1 % on 2006 production. The growth rate of 5.1%, almost on the long-term average, takes into account the very high level of supply, which occurred in many countries during 2006 and caused a significant build-up of stainless steel stock at service centres and fabricators. Actual global stainless steel production in 2006 increased by 16.7 % to 28.4mmt compared to 2005. This more than compensated for the downturn in production during 2005 (-1,1%). At the current time ISSF does not see a risk for a drop in stainless steel demand from the stainless steel fabricating industries. However, the shift to ferritics, already happening for some customers, is a precondition, providing technically equivalent solutions, with lower and more stable prices.
