China's stainless steel prices are set to come under pressure from rising supply, but with the Shanghai Futures Exchange set to launch its futures for this segment, the spot market could be in store for more liquidity as well as fluctuation.
Rising capacity China's stainless steel mills are making more investments in infrastructure amid an outlook for steady growth of consumption in the country in the years to come.By the end of 2018, some 9.3 million tonnes per year of stainless steel capacity were under construction while another 6 million tpy were already being planned, according to Zhang Zhifang, the chairman of northern China's Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Tisco), the second-largest stainless steel producer in the country.If all of these are put into production, China will see its stainless steel capacity exceed 53 million tpy, he said.Over the 2017-2018 period, the country's stainless cold-rolling capacity had risen by 6 million tpy, and the next three years will see this increase by another 10.66 million tpy, Zhang pointed out.Zhang had said in the middle of last year that China's crude stainless steel capacity was expected to reach 44-45 million tpy by 2020....