The development of China's stainless steel industry is relatively late. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, before the reform and opening up, the demand for stainless steel in China was mainly based on the advanced use of industry and national defense. After the reform and opening up, the rapid development of the national economy and the significant improvement of people's living standards have stimulated the demand for stainless steel. After entering the 1990s, China's stainless steel industry entered a period of rapid development, and the growth rate of stainless steel demand was much higher than the global level. Since 1990, the global consumption of stainless steel has grown at an average annual rate of 6%. In the 10 years of the 1990s, the apparent consumption of stainless steel in China was 2.9 times the annual growth rate of the world. In the 21st century, China's stainless steel industry has grown rapidly.

From 2000 to 2006, the average annual growth rate of China's stainless steel consumption was above 21.17%. Among them, in 2001, China's apparent consumption of stainless steel reached 2.05 million tons, surpassing the United States to become the world's largest stainless steel consumer. In 2008, the apparent consumption of stainless steel in China reached 6.24 million tons, down 5.17% year-on-year.

In November 2011, China's stainless steel output increased by 11.1% to 12.5 million tons. The production of stainless steel products was 336,800 tons, an increase of 65.25%. Among them, Guangdong Province is the main production base of stainless steel products in China, with a production of 1.837 million tons, an increase of 41.76%, accounting for 78.62% of the national total.

With the implementation of the strategy of the development of the western region, the projects of the West-East Power Transmission, the West-East Gas Transmission, the South-to-North Water Diversion, the Three Gorges Project, the Rural Power Network and the Urban Power Grid Second Network, the hot-dip galvanizing industry in China has entered a new round of high-speed development stage.

The chromium and nickel in the raw materials of China's stainless steel industry is oversupply in foreign countries, but in China, the situation is in short supply; stainless steel is overcapacity, supply exceeds demand, and profit margins fluctuate frequently. As the competition in the stainless steel industry continues to intensify, mergers and acquisitions and capital operations among large-scale stainless steel producers are becoming more frequent. Domestic excellent stainless steel producers are paying more and more attention to the research of the industry market, especially the changes in the development environment and customer demand trends. In-depth study. Because of this, a large number of domestic excellent stainless steel brands have risen rapidly and gradually become the leader in the stainless steel industry!

Operation of the steel industry

(1)Production reached a record high. From January to June 2013, the country's cumulative production of crude steel was 390 million tons, an increase of 7.4% year-on-year, and the growth rate was 5.6 percentage points higher than the same period of last year. In the first six months, the average daily output of crude steel was 2.154 million tons, equivalent to an annual output of 786 million tons of crude steel. Among them, the highest in history reached 2.208 million tons in February, and although it fell back in March-June, it remained at a high level of over 2.1 million tons. In terms of provinces and regions, from January to June, the output of crude steel in Hebei and Jiangsu provinces increased by 6.8% and 13.2% respectively. The total new output of the two provinces accounted for 42.4% of the national increase of 26.94 million tons, and Shanxi and Liaoning. The increase in production in Henan and Yunnan provinces is also over 1 million tons. In terms of types of enterprises, from January to June, the output of crude steel in key large and medium-sized steel enterprises increased by 5.5% year-on-year, which was lower than the national average growth rate by 2 percentage points, but still 60% of the increase in production came from key large and medium-sized steel enterprises.

(2)The steel price is running at a low level. From January to June 2013, the overall performance of the domestic steel market was sluggish. With the substantial release of crude steel production capacity, the market supply and demand have fallen into an unbalanced state, and steel prices have entered a downward channel, which has been weakly reduced for more than four months. As of July 26, 2013, the steel price index fell to 100.48 points, down from 6.6 points at the beginning of the year. The prices of the eight steel products in the key statistics of the Iron and Steel Industry Association have declined to varying degrees from the beginning of the year, with an average decline of 5.7%. In terms of varieties, the price of construction wire and rebar, which accounted for a large proportion of China's steel output, fell by 4.9% and 6.7%, respectively, and the prices of plate and hot rolled coil fell by 5.7% and 9.7% respectively.

(3)Steel exports grew rapidly. The imbalance between supply and demand in the domestic steel market stimulates corporate exports. From January to June, China's accumulated steel exports totaled 30.69 million tons, up 12.6% year-on-year; imported steel 6.83 million tons, down 1.8%, and imported steel billets and steel ingots 320,000 tons, up 50%. The billet was converted into crude steel, and the cumulative net export was 25.06 million tons, up 17.3% year-on-year, accounting for 6.4% of China's crude steel output. From the perspective of export prices, the average price of export rods and rods in January-June was US$624.3/ton, down 18% year-on-year; sheet metal was US$835.2/ton, down 2.8% year-on-year.

(4)Steel mills and social stocks operate at high levels. The contradiction between supply and demand in the market spread to the circulation field, and domestic steel inventories continued to grow at the end of last year. On March 15, it reached a record high of 22.52 million tons, an increase of 3.51 million tons from the highest point of the previous year, including 14.32 million tons of construction steel stocks, accounting for 63.6% of the total inventory. Later, as seasonal consumption increased, stocks gradually fell back, and fell to 15.4 million tons on July 26. The oversupply of the market also pushed up the inventory of steel mills. In mid-March, the steel inventory of key enterprises hit a historical record, reaching 14.51 million tons, up 29.7% year-on-year. It fell to 12.68 million tons in late June, still up 29.9% from the beginning of the year, compared with 2012. The year-on-year growth was 11.4%.

(5)The profit level of steel mills declined month by month. In the first half of 2013, the metallurgical industry realized a profit of 73.69 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.7%. Among them, the ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry realized a profit of 45.44 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.7%. From January to May, the profitability of key large and medium-sized steel enterprises was far less than the overall level of the industry, and it showed a monthly decline. Although the profit growth was 34%, it was only 2.8 billion yuan, and the sales profit rate was 0.19%. In the month of May, 86 key large and medium-sized iron and steel enterprises realized a profit of only 150 million yuan, a decline of five consecutive months, of which 34 losses, up to 40%.

(6) The growth rate of fixed assets investment in the steel industry dropped significantly. From January to June 2013, the fixed assets investment of the steel industry was 303.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.3%, of which ferrous metal smelting and rolling investment was 235.6 billion yuan, up 3.3% year-on-year, down 6.1 percentage points from the same period of 2012; ferrous metal mining The investment was chosen to be 67.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.8%, and the growth rate dropped sharply by 15 percentage points.