According to Stainless Steel Council of China Special Steel Enterprises Association, crude stainless steel production during the first nine months (January to September) 2012 was 11.4070 million tons, up by 9.4% YoY, comprising Cr Alloyed (400's): 2.3166 million tons (up by 6.7% YoY, Ni Alloyed (300's): 5.6920 million tons (up by 2.8% YoY) and Mn Alloyed (200's): 3.3986 million tons (up by 25.1% YoY).

 

The council also reported that imports of SUS products during the period were 610,000 tons (down by 19.2% YoY), while exports were 1,497,000 tons (down by 14.6% YoY) and that apparent consumption during the period was 9.1438 million tons. It is to be noted that there is lack of consistency with the past data released in the statistics of this year because this year's data were made based on a wider range of samples, therefore the ups and downs in the comparisons are for guidance only.

 

According to a media report, production of crude stainless steel in September was 1,258,000 tons (up by 1.5% MoM), with imports of 70,000 tons (down by 12.3% MoM) and exports of 188,000 tons (up by 13.9% MoM), while apparent consumption in September 2012 was 950,000 tons (down by 1.8% MoM) and 2,915,000 tons in the Q3 (July to September) 2012, up by 9.6% YoY.

 

Another media report says that the production of crude stainless steel in September 2012 was 400's: 262,000 tons, 300's: 604,000 tons and 200's 345,000 tons and that September 2012 production by major four SUS mills in China i.e. TISCO, Baosteel excluding Desheng's output, JISCO and Zhangjiagang POSCO totaled 605,000 tons. There was no mention of comparisons with the records of the preceding month.