As observed from the current situation, world stainless steel demand has appeared a slumping trend, with reports saying the buyers are walking away in the dim summer, expecting nickel price drop could drag down the stainless steel price further. Besides, credit crunch slowed the growth pace of the construction industry and thus slacken stainless demand, which is to some extent also affected by the emerging substitute materials.

China's stainless steel demand has kept strong these years, at an annual growth rate of 20.6% since 1995, mainly from such sectors as real estate, machinery, automobile, household appliance, water industry, environmental protection facilities and other industrial facilities.

As a backbone industry in China, real estate had early application of stainless steel, which is mainly used in external wall, in door cladding, railing, flooring, wall board, window and curtail wall of the buildings. Despite the heated debate on whether inflexion is ahead of China's real estate industry, the investment still holds on a growth rate of over 30% from June 2007, till the first half of 2008.

In the automobile sector, stainless application remains lagging behind in China than in the developed countries like Japan, US and Switzerland. There are some high end steel varieties used in vent system still mainly reliant on imports, while the existing demand indicate further requirements and opportunities are there for the domestic stainless steelmakers.

The household appliance industry mostly employs ferritic stainless steel. As a competitive exporter of many domestic appliances, such as microwave, refrigerator, air conditioning and television, and given a low rate of stainless use in making such products, the potential stainless market in this sector is huge.

Apart from above sectors, other industries, such as chemical fiber, paper making, food, medical and energy can take up 15% of the stainless consumption in the developed countries.

(Sourced from MySteel.net)