Global stainless steel consumption in 2024 will grow by 4% y/y – WSA

Global consumption of stainless steel will grow by 4% by the end of 2024 compared to 2023, when the indicator grew by 3.2% y/y. This forecast was published by the World Association of Stainless Steel Manufacturers (WSA).

In particular, the consumption of cold-rolled flat sheet in the current year will increase by 4.7% y/y, hot-rolled flat sheet – by 3.6% y/y, stainless steel long rolled – by 1% y/y.

In the regions of Europe/Africa, the consumption of stainless steel will decrease by 4.7% y/y in 2024, mainly due to a significant decrease in demand for long stainless steel products – by 13.9% y/y. In America, the indicator is expected to decrease by 0.4% y/y. At the same time, consumption in Asia (excluding China) will grow by 6.5% y/y, and in China – by 5.3% y/y.

WSA predicts that in 2025, the growth rate of global stainless steel consumption will slow to 3% y/y. The demand for cold-rolled stainless steel sheet will grow by 2.8% y/y, hot-rolled stainless sheet – by 3.7% y/y, and graded stainless steel – by 3% y/y.

Next year will see a slowdown in stainless steel consumption in the Asian region, while there will be a slight recovery in Europe/Africa and the Americas, including:

• Europe/Africa (+2.2% y/y);
• America (+2%);
• Asia excluding China (+5.3%);
• China (+2.6%).

As GMK Center reported earlier, global production of stainless steel by the end of 2023 increased by 4.6% compared to 2022 – to 58.4 million tons. Europe, including Ukraine, decreased the production of stainless steel by 6.2% compared to 2022 year – to 5.9 million tons, the figure decreased by 9.6% y/y – to 1.82 million tons, China – increased by 12.6% y/y, up to 36.68 million tons.