The global spread of COVID-19 in 2020 poses a great challenge to the normal operation of the stainless steel industry.After a sharp drop of 9.8% in the first quarter of 2020, China’s stainless steel output increased by 30% in the second quarter compared with the previous quarter under the favorable development environment of important progress in epidemic prevention and control in China.Overall, China’s stainless steel output in the first half of the year reached 13.96 million tons, down only 2.74% from the previous month.Meanwhile, China’s apparent consumption of stainless steel in the first half of 2020 was 11,658,500 tons, down 2.27% from the same period last year.China’s per capita apparent consumption of stainless steel in 2019 is 17.18kg, with a year-on-year increase of 1.39kg and an increase of 8.8%, indicating that there is still room for growth in China’s per capita consumption of stainless steel.

In addition, China’s actual consumption of stainless steel is in a period of accelerating growth, and the overall demand for stainless steel is on the positive side.