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Stainless Steel in figures: A global and South African view for 2025 Stainless steel has become an integral part of modern society, and a future without it is impossible to imagine. It is used in the provision of food, clean water, pharmaceuticals and medical care, chemical products, transport, and safety. It is therefore no surprise that stainless steel has maintained a strong growth curve since its inception just under 120 years ago.
The demand for stainless steel remains positive, resulting in an annual compound growth rate in the world’s melt shop production of 5.72%. The remarkable characteristic of the global growth of stainless steel is that it has remained between 5% and 6% annually, and has been constant since the late 1950s. Most of this material is being produced in China. The Chinese share of world production has increased steadily from 12.9% in 2002 to 51.9% in 2015, with the current Chinese production share standing at 62.8%. The European Union’s share was 34.8% in 2002 but halved to around 17.3% in 2015. Currently, production in the EU accounts for approximately 10.1% of world production.
Stainless steel continues to outperform the rest of the major competitor metals, growing at a rate of more than 5% annually, which is more than double the growth of carbon steel, lead, and zinc individually. There is also always higher demand for stainless steel than the tonnage used or consumed, however, the forecast for demand in the Americas remains flat for the future. Fortunately a slightly higher demand is expected for the Europe and Africa regions during 2025. The actual rate of projected consumption in these regions also appears stronger than that of the Americas for the next few years. There is a strong similarity in the demand and expected consumption of Asia (excluding China) and the Americas.
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Issue 1 – 2025
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