Intensified Domestic and International Competition in the Stainless Steel Industry

Liu Yanping, secretary general of the Stainless Steel Branch of the China Special Steel Association, recently participated in the "Online Metal Week of the Industrial Training Base of the Last Period of 2020" that the stainless steel industry is facing dual pressures from increased domestic and international competition, and the stainless steel industry needs to heat up and seek transformation and upgrading .

 Liu Yanping believes that the current domestic stainless steel industry is facing many challenges. The first is the high degree of dependence on raw materials. Although China is the country with the largest stainless steel production, nickel's external dependence is over 85%, chrome ore is almost 100% dependent on imports, and the source is also highly concentrated. Before Indonesia's ban on minerals, China's nickel ore sources were mainly the Philippines and Indonesia. After Indonesia's ban on mining, China's main source country became the Philippines. The main source of chromium ore is South Africa, accounting for about 80%.

 "The high concentration of sources adds some risks to our industry. If some local policies or some force majeure factors affect raw materials, we are facing the risk of shortage of raw materials." Liu Yanping said that price fluctuations also brought some to the industry Operational risks. Nickel prices rose and fell last year, and stainless steel companies are indeed facing greater risks.

 In addition, the stainless steel industry is facing dual pressures from increased domestic and international competition. According to Liu Yanping, the downstream demand for stainless steel is not growing fast. In the next 2 to 3 years, the domestic new production capacity exceeds 10 million tons. The concentrated release of production capacity has intensified the competitive pressure of the stainless steel industry.