Stainless steel melt shop production in the first nine months of 2016 rose 7% year on year to 33.585 million mt, figures from the International Stainless Steel Forum showed Tuesday.
Production increased in all regions except Central/Eastern Europe, the ISSF said.
Chinese production stood at 18.083 million mt for the January-September period, up 11.4% from the year-earlier period, while output from the rest of Asia was up 4.2% at 7.372 million mt.
Stainless melt shop production in Western Europe/Africa reached 5.762 million mt, up 0.4% from 5.738 million mt in January-September last year, while production in the Americas was up 1.5% at 2.178 million mt.
Nine-month production in Central and Eastern Europe was 189,000 mt, off 4.6% from output of 198,000 mt in the corresponding 2015 period.
On a quarterly basis, Q3 2016 stainless melt shop production was down 2.9% overall from Q2 at 11.488 million mt, but with regional variations -- output was down in China (minus 3.5% at 6.319 million mt) and Western Europe/Africa (minus 14% at 1.761 million mt), but up in Asia excluding China (plus 3.4% at 2.531 million mt), the Americas (plus 13% at 815,000 mt) and Central/Eastern Europe (plus 2.3% at 63,000 mt).
