Strengthen Industry Self-Discipline, Improve Quality and Efficiency, Guide the Stainless Steel Industry Towards Sustained and Healthy Development

– Annual Work Report on China's Stainless Steel Industry (2025)

November 27, 2025

The China Stainless Steel Industry Annual Conference and Industrial Development Conference was held in Foshan. On behalf of the Stainless Steel Branch of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), Ms. Zhou Zhuoli, Party Committee Secretary and Chairman of Guangxi Beigang New Materials Co., Ltd., and Rotating President of the CISA Stainless Steel Branch, delivered the 2025 Annual Work Report on China's Stainless Steel Industry.

The full text of the report is as follows:

The year 2025 marks the concluding year of China's 14th Five-Year Plan and the inaugural year for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan. At this historical juncture where two five-year plans converge, China's steel industry is transitioning from a phase of "incremental expansion" to one of "optimizing adjustments through reduction and improving quality and efficiency in existing capacities." The stainless steel industry faces equally severe challenges. Confronted with the dual pressures of a complex and volatile international market environment and domestic structural adjustments, the entire industry has focused on the core tasks of "combatting internal involution, promoting collaborative development, and ensuring stable growth." It has actively responded to multiple pressures, including fluctuating raw material prices, slowing demand growth, and international trade frictions.

At this critical transitional period, entrusted by the Stainless Steel Branch, I present this annual work report to the conference. The report aims to systematically summarize the achievements and experiences of the past year, scientifically analyze the situation and direction of the new phase, build consensus, clarify the path forward, and jointly advance the stainless steel industry steadily on the path of high-quality development. Please review and deliberate.

I. Operational Overview of the Stainless Steel Industry

In the first three quarters of 2025, the global stainless steel industry exhibited characteristics of "intensifying regional divergence and accelerating green transition." Influenced by factors such as high energy costs and weak market demand, traditional production regions like Europe, Japan, and South Korea experienced lower operating rates and a degree of output decline. In contrast, emerging production bases in Asia, such as Indonesia, maintained strong competitiveness due to their raw material advantages and sizable local consumer markets. In response to this trend, enterprises in Europe and the U.S. focused on the R&D and production of high-value-added, customized, and high-end stainless steel products to serve local strategic supply chain needs. Simultaneously, industry leaders like Outokumpu continued to increase R&D investment in low-carbon material technologies, advancing the industrialization of key raw materials like low-carbon metallic chromium and green ferrochrome, leading the industry towards greener and more high-end development. Overall, global competition in the stainless steel industry is gradually shifting from being cost- and scale-driven to a new stage where technological innovation and green sustainability are the core driving forces.

In 2025, guided by the policy objectives of "high-quality development" and the "Dual Carbon" goals, China's stainless steel industry actively promoted industrial structure optimization, gradually transitioning from scale expansion to quality enhancement. The domestic demand structure showed significant changes: strategic emerging sectors such as new energy (e.g., hydrogen storage and transportation), environmental protection equipment, and high-end chemical processing became key drivers of industry growth, while demand growth in traditional sectors like architectural decoration slowed. Furthermore, facing persistently high and fluctuating prices of key raw materials like nickel and chromium, coupled with intensifying internal competition, enterprises generally bore significant cost pressures. Stainless steel also faces competitive pressures from alternative materials like non-ferrous metals and carbon fiber. While actively consolidating traditional downstream demand, Chinese stainless steel enterprises have also been proactively exploring new application areas.

Over the past year, the industry's operations primarily exhibited the following characteristics:

(I) Production and Consumption: Steady Production Growth with Continuous Structural Optimization

In 2024, global stainless steel crude steel production reached 62.82 million tons, with China's share rising to 62.78%. From January to September 2025, China's stainless steel crude steel output reached 30.4618 million tons, an increase of 1.3869 million tons or 4.77% compared to the same period in 2024. It is estimated that China's annual stainless steel crude steel production for 2025 will exceed 40 million tons, representing a year-on-year growth of approximately 3.0%–5.0%.

Regarding product mix, the production of 300-series stainless steel was about 15.6209 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 6.27%, with its share rising to 51.28%. The production of 400-series stainless steel was about 5.5827 million tons, a slight year-on-year increase of 0.62%, with its share declining to 18.33%, as substitution demand in appliances and architectural decoration continued, highlighting its cost advantages. Duplex stainless steel production reached 348,300 tons, a significant year-on-year increase of 14.72%, with its share rising to 1.14%, driven by growing demand in high-end equipment for marine engineering, nuclear power projects, and chemical tankers. The production of 200-series stainless steel was 8.9066 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 4.53%, but its share decreased to 29.25%. The industry actively adapted to market demand and adjusted its product mix.

New characteristics emerged in the consumption market. From January to September 2025, China's apparent stainless steel consumption was 24.9123 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 3.77%, exhibiting a pattern of "new sectors expanding increments while traditional sectors stabilizing the base."

1. Newly Emerging Sectors showed sustained growth, becoming driving forces for stainless steel demand. In the new energy vehicle sector, automakers like Li Auto have begun mass adoption of the UFHS ultra-high-strength stainless steel developed by Tsingshan Holding Group for high-pressure fuel tanks. In the hydrogen energy sector, high-performance stainless steel is indispensable across all stages—production, storage, transportation, and utilization—such as in electrolyzer bipolar plates, hydrogen storage tank liners, and hydrogen pipelines. In the lithium battery sector, stainless steel is a key material for processes like raw material sintering (e.g., sintering furnaces, conveyor belts) and hydrometallurgical production lines (reactors, crystallizers, and pipelines). With the continued global expansion of lithium battery capacity, especially for high-end power and energy storage batteries, stainless steel usage in this area is expected to maintain sustained growth.

2. Traditional Sectors experienced steady recovery. Nationwide urban renewal actions and the renovation of old residential communities are progressing orderly, particularly the upgrading of underground water supply and drainage networks, creating sustained and stable market demand for related architectural stainless steel pipes. Furthermore, consumption upgrades are driving the transformation of the food processing industry towards automation and intelligence, maintaining strong growth momentum for high-performance stainless steel used in food machinery. Demand for steel in shipbuilding and marine engineering showed significant growth over the past year, becoming an important driver for steel consumption. Market data indicates that global orders for stainless steel chemical tankers are at historically high levels, with domestic shipbuilders like Wuchang Shipbuilding and Fangzhen Shipbuilding operating at full capacity. This trend strongly boosts consumption demand for high-grade duplex stainless steels like 2205 and 2507, showing significant double-digit growth.

Regarding imports and exports, from January to September, total stainless steel imports were 1.138 million tons, a decrease of 308,900 tons or 21.35% year-on-year. Stainless steel exports reached 3.783 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 1.64%.

(II) Economic Benefits: Widening Divergence in Enterprise Profitability

1. Overall industry profitability under pressure, with significant divergence among enterprises

From January to September 2025, against the backdrop of overall pressure on profitability and persistently low average profit margins in China's stainless steel industry, structural divergence continued to intensify. High operating prices for key raw materials like nickel and chromium, combined with persistently low stainless steel product prices, placed most enterprises under dual pressures of high costs and market competition, leaving many with minimal profits or operating near breakeven. Leading enterprises represented by TISCO Stainless Steel, Jiuli Special Materials, and Yongxing Materials, leveraging their leading advantages in high-value-added products such as nickel-based alloys, nuclear power tubing, hydrogen storage and transportation equipment, and special alloys, actively expanded into high-end markets like new energy and nuclear power, achieving steady profit growth. Enterprises with resource advantages, such as Tsingshan Holding Group and Zhenshi Group's Oriental Special Steel, maintained relatively strong profitability.

2. Cost Side: Raw material price fluctuations make cost reduction and efficiency improvement core actions

1. Divergence in Raw Material Prices: From January to September, the average price of high-nickel iron was approximately 945 yuan/Ni point, a year-on-year increase of about 2.0%; the average price of high-carbon ferrochrome was about 8,400 yuan/metric ton, a year-on-year decrease of about 4.5%, as increased chromium ore imports from South Africa (about 8.7 million tons from Jan-Sep, up approx. 8% year-on-year) alleviated cost pressure. The domestic scrap steel resource gap persisted, with cumulative imports of stainless steel scrap reaching 85,400 tons from Jan-Sep, an increase of 10,300 tons or 18% year-on-year.

2. Enterprise Cost-Reduction Measures: Many stainless steel enterprises achieved cost reduction and efficiency improvement through process optimization, resource recycling, and artificial intelligence. Jiugang Hongxing significantly reduced the incidence of surface defects in 430-series head slabs by increasing the usage rate of domestically produced mold powders for ultra-pure steel grades, achieving breakthroughs in key process indicators. Simultaneously, the company implemented technical modifications to its No. 2 AOD converter, enabling the utilization of large slag steel and copper-containing scrap, reducing cost per ton of steel by 5.31 yuan. Baosteel Desheng Cold Rolling Mill optimized the rolling process for thin-gauge products, increasing yield by about 1.2% and achieving annual cost savings exceeding 12 million yuan. Beigang New Materials, through the construction of a "digital operational scenario integrating production, supply, and sales," reduced logistics costs by 35 yuan/ton and improved order response speed by 25%. Furthermore, the application of AI technology in the stainless steel industry is accelerating from pilot demonstrations by leading enterprises to penetration across the entire industrial chain, driving the production model towards greater intelligence and efficiency. TISCO Group, through its self-developed "AI Smart Steelmaking Assistant," achieved intelligent decision-making in key areas like converter endpoint control and alloy optimization, improving operational efficiency by over 30% and significantly enhancing the intelligence level of the entire process. Beigang New Materials utilized AI technology to build a blast furnace hearth erosion monitoring and early warning model, accurately tracking erosion line changes for real-time monitoring and precise warning, effectively improving furnace safety and stability. It also introduced AI visual inspection technology, achieving high-precision identification of steel strip surface defects (with a detection rate reaching 99%), providing reliable assurance for product quality control.

(III) Technological Innovation: Accelerated Breakthroughs in High-End Materials, Upgraded Processes and Equipment, and Multi-Point Breakthroughs in Import Substitution and Domestic Application

1. Materials Side: Accelerated Domestic Production in "Bottleneck" Areas

1. High-End Alloy Materials and Special Steels: TISCO Group overcame a world-class challenge in N10276 nickel-based alloy, achieving stable mass production of hot-rolled coils exceeding 14 tons in single weight, breaking a long-standing weight limitation and meeting demand in petrochemical and marine engineering. TISCO pioneered and launched the C-HRA-5 new austenitic heat-resistant steel boiler tube, successfully achieving domestic application in a 630°C ultra-supercritical power generation unit demonstration project, filling a domestic gap. Fushun Special Steel achieved domestic production of urea-grade austenitic stainless steel (SH010/SH020), with technical appraisal confirming that the performance of its plates, heat exchanger tubes, and other products reached international advanced levels. Beizhong Group successfully developed high-nitrogen non-magnetic austenitic stainless steel with nitrogen content exceeding 0.85%, possessing excellent strength and corrosion resistance, filling a domestic technological gap in atmospheric pressure melting of high-nitrogen stainless steel. The globally first nickel-free metal vascular stent (using BIOSSN high-nitrogen nickel-free stainless steel) developed by the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, received market approval, avoiding risks associated with nickel ion sensitization.

2. Ultra-Thin Materials and "Hand-Tearing Steel": The precision foil for high-temperature superconducting substrates and the precision foil for shadow masks released by TISCO Group not only filled industry gaps but also addressed China's challenges in superconducting and flexible display materials. Ningbo Baoxin Precision Strip, with its exceptional performance described as "thin as a cicada's wing yet solid as a rock," is strongly competing in high-end market segments like electronics and semiconductors.

3. Composite Materials: Beigang New Materials, in collaboration with Beihai Sanhe New Materials, successfully rolled a composite slab of 304 stainless steel and J5D steel billet, optimizing material properties through roll bonding and reducing costs by 30%–50%. The Inconel 625 nickel-based alloy/X65 pipeline steel bimetallic composite pipe co-developed by Angang Steel overcame deep-sea high-pressure corrosion resistance technology.

2. Process and Equipment Side: Upgrades Towards Intelligence and High Efficiency

1. Smelting and Rolling Processes: Tsingshan Holding Group's 3500mm wide and heavy plate project adopted the world's first integrated short-process technology of "Steckel mill rolling - online solution treatment - online pickling," filling the domestic technological gap for producing extremely thin and wide stainless steel plates. TISCO & TPCO Cold Rolling Mill's continuous pickling line achieved "non-stop threading through weld seams," reducing coil removal time by 1 minute, increasing mid-line speed by 20%, and synchronously optimizing the entire process including uncoiling, tail-out, and positioning, enabling high-speed stable operation for thin materials and significantly improving capacity utilization.

2. Breakthroughs in Domestic Equipment and Specialized Equipment: Shanxi Fujiang Stainless Steel introduced China's first set of 1550mm 20-high cold rolling mills, increasing product width to 1550mm and allowing thickness error to be precisely controlled to the micron level (0.001mm). The 20-high precision reversible cold rolling mill for stainless steel manufactured by Wuhan Qianye Engineering was exported to Japan for the first time, marking a shift for China's steel equipment manufacturing from import to export.

3. Intelligent Production Lines and Factories: Fushun Special Steel successfully completed the hot test run of China's first intelligent high-alloy plate production line, adopting a "big data centralized control" mode to achieve precise and intelligent management of high-alloy plate production, improving trial product precision by up to 65%. TISCO Stainless Steel's "Closed-Loop Controlled Stainless Steel Cold Rolling Intelligent Factory" was selected for the MIIT's 2025 Exemplary Intelligent Factory Project. Jiuli Special Materials' "All-Factor Integrated Intelligent Factory for Special Alloy Tubes and Pipes" was selected as a National Exemplary Intelligent Factory Project. Shangshang Desheng's new factory was included in Zhejiang Province's Future Factory Cultivation Enterprise List.

3. Downstream Application Side: Breakthroughs in High-End and Substitution in Traditional Areas

1. New Energy and Clean Energy: TISCO Group globally launched the TOPS stainless steel material for offshore photovoltaic brackets, specifically designed for high-temperature, high-humidity, high-salt corrosive marine environments. The high-strength, high-toughness stainless steel UFHS, co-developed by Tsingshan Holding Group and Li Auto, was applied to new energy vehicle high-pressure fuel tanks, increasing strength by 46%. The S31603 austenitic stainless steel plate produced by Jiugang passed technical evaluation by the China Special Equipment Inspection and Research Institute for application in pressure vessels for extremely low-temperature environments like liquid hydrogen/liquid helium.

2. High-End Equipment and Transportation: The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology successfully developed China's first 10-meter-diameter stainless steel tank prototype for heavy-lift launch vehicles. Jian Yuan Technology achieved the successful recovery of China's first "liquid oxygen methane + stainless steel + sea-based soft landing recovery" rocket (Yuan Xingzhe No. 1). Tsingshan Holding Group's economical high-strength duplex stainless steel QTDX21 was globally first applied to railway freight cars. TISCO's new ferritic stainless steel 425M for automotive exhaust systems passed certification and was applied by a leading domestic automaker.

3. Construction Sector: The high-strength economical duplex stainless steel QD2001 overcame technical challenges in forming and welding, successfully applied in the Chongqing East Railway Station. 316L stainless steel sandblasted plates with thicknesses ranging from 2.0-12.0mm were successfully applied to the curtain wall of the Shenzhen China Merchants Bank Headquarters building, with a total usage of 2,600 tons. These stainless steel plates not only form the main exterior facade but also, through external framing, grids, and trusses, ensure the durability, stability, and modern aesthetic of the curtain wall system.

4. Expansion into Emerging and Traditional Fields: Junshi Biosciences established one of China's largest clusters of stainless steel bioreactors for biopharmaceuticals. Companies like Fadior are promoting the development of stainless steel in home furnishing and architecture towards artistry and functionality, integrating natural aesthetics with modern technology through applications like mirror sculptures.

(IV) Green and Low-Carbon: Accelerated Transition and Improved Standard System

1. National and Industry Standards

Since January 2025, multiple national standards have been issued, such as "Seamless Stainless Steel Tubes for Liquid Hydrogen Storage and Transportation," "Stainless Steel Plates, Sheets and Strips for Ships and Offshore Engineering," "Cold Rolled Stainless Steel Plates and Strips for Building Roofing and Curtain Walls," and "Seamless Stainless Steel Tubes for Fluid Conveying," promoting the standardization of materials in China's high-end industrial applications. Two green and low-carbon industry standards, YB/T6230-2024 "Technical Requirements for Energy Consumption per Unit Product of Stainless Steel" and YB/T6231-2024 "Technical Requirements for Carbon Emission per Unit Product in Steel Industry Rolling Processes," came into effect on July 1, 2025, effectively promoting the better development of green and low-carbon enterprises.

2. Promotion and Application of Low-Carbon Processes

1. Energy Greening: TISCO's first batch of 304L medium plates, produced via the "scrap-EAF short process + BIPV green power from factory roofs" route, achieved full-chain carbon reduction, with the product carbon footprint decreasing by over 75% compared to traditional processes. Meeting the EU CBAM advanced level requirements, these products successfully entered the European high-end market.

2. Technological Innovation: The high-end nickel-chromium new material intelligent manufacturing project of Zhenshi Group's Oriental Special Steel adopted full-oxygen combustion technology: its heating furnace was the first in China to apply this technology in a stainless steel hot rolling line, reducing natural gas energy consumption by about 8 Nm³/ton of steel compared to traditional equipment, eliminating the need for denitrification processes, and achieving ultra-low emissions. Additionally, by constructing an energy storage system, distributed photovoltaic power stations, and a plant-wide waste heat recovery network, it achieved "source-storage-load" coordination, ensuring carbon neutrality during operation, becoming the world's first all-green-power "zero-emission" stainless steel intelligent manufacturing factory. The project innovatively adopted a "melting furnace + AOD furnace" two-step and "three-step" steelmaking process, combined with intelligent algorithms to build a low-cost, high-efficiency material supply model, enabling high-quality, high-efficiency, low-cost smelting of multiple steel grades.

(V) Raw Materials: Intensified Resource Constraints and Insufficient Capacity Utilization

1. Raw Materials Side: High External Dependence and Deepening Resource Cooperation

1. Nickel Resources: China's dependence on external nickel resources has long remained around 85%. In 2025, Indonesia maintained its nickel pig iron export tariff at 5%–7%. From January to September, nickel pig iron imports from Indonesia were about 8.14 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 31.93%. Integrated nickel mining and smelting projects in Indonesia by Tsingshan Holding Group and Huayou Cobalt continued to release capacity, becoming a "ballast stone" for securing domestic nickel supply.

2. Chromium Resources: From January to September 2025, South African chromium ore accounted for 83.16% of China's imports, with total imports from South Africa reaching 13.5372 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 5.97%. Political unrest in South Africa during this period caused a short-term rapid price increase of over 15% for chromium ore. To mitigate risks, China signed long-term chromium ore supply agreements with countries like Zimbabwe. Imports from Zimbabwe from Jan-Sep were 1.3065 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 49.38%.

3. Molybdenum Resources: China holds over 50% of global molybdenum reserves. In 2024, China's molybdenum mine output was 260,000 tons, an increase of 4.37% from the previous year but nearly 40,000 tons less than the peak output in 2015. Although there have been new molybdenum mine capacities in recent years, growth has been slow, with most new mines not yet fully operational or meeting standards, and technological upgrades in existing mines not fully releasing capacity. Coupled with accidents at domestic and international molybdenum mines since July, supply concerns intensified. Influenced by molybdenum concentrate price fluctuations, ferromolybdenum market prices rose sharply, severely impacting downstream enterprises. TISCO, CITIC Pacific Special Steel, and Tsingshan Holding Group issued a joint statement calling for maintaining the healthy development of the molybdenum industry chain. A dialogue and exchange meeting between ferromolybdenum enterprises and steel mills was held on August 25, aiming to promote synergistic development of the industrial chain.

4. Scrap Steel Resources: The resource security strategy highlights the value of scrap steel. China's dependence on iron ore imports exceeds 80%, while domestic scrap steel reserves have surpassed 10 billion tons, forming a vast "urban mineral resource." Data shows that using an additional 100 million tons of scrap steel can reduce iron ore imports by 160 million tons while lowering carbon emissions by 70% and energy consumption by 60%. This "resource substitution + dual-win carbon reduction" characteristic makes scrap steel a key path to alleviating resource constraints in the steel industry. The resource supply structure is undergoing profound changes: the proportion of scrap steel from traditional building demolition is gradually decreasing, while the share of industrial manufacturing scrap and end-of-life vehicles and appliances is continuously increasing. Automobile dismantling scrap now accounts for over 28%, becoming an important incremental source. This structural optimization not only improves scrap steel quality but also drives the industry's transformation from "extensive recycling" to "precision utilization." From January to September 2025, cumulative imports of stainless steel scrap were 85,400 tons, an increase of 10,300 tons or 18% year-on-year.

2. Capacity Side: Continued Capacity Growth and Intensified Market Competition

In recent years, new capacity additions have been concentrated in China, India, Indonesia, and other regions, further adjusting the global stainless steel capacity competition landscape. Leveraging lateritic nickel ore resource advantages, Indonesia's stainless steel crude steel capacity reached about 7 million tons; India's capacity expanded to about 7.5 million tons. By the end of 2024, China's stainless steel capacity exceeded 50 million tons, and it is expected that Zhenshi Group's Oriental Special Steel's 2.5 million ton stainless steel project will be completed and operational by the end of this year. The global stainless steel industry faces a situation of oversupply in capacity, with competition expected to intensify both domestically and internationally, putting further pressure on capacity utilization rates.