Statistics showed that China’s 43 stainless steel mills produced around 2.86 million tons of stainless steel crude steel in January, falling by 16.87% from the previous month but rising by 4.4% compared to the same month a year ago. The month-on-month drop was primarily driven by reduced output across all series, especially the 200 series having the largest month-on-month decrease at 21.43%.

However, the planned production in February rose to around 3.15 million tons, a 9.94% increase from January and a 23.53% growth from last February. Among them, the 200 and 300 series will have relatively significant growth, with a month-on-month increase of 18.73% and 7.46%, respectively.