Latest Stainless Steel Industry News

Tsingshan Zimbabwe Project has Begun Exporting Products to South Africa

According to media reports on May 24, 2025, DISCO, a steel production base under China's Tsingshan Holding Group located in Manshizi, Mvuma City, Zimbabwe, has officially started export trade to South Africa. This progress marks a new breakthrough in the layout of the industrial chain of Chinese-funded enterprises in the African region, and also attracts the attention of the local steel industry in South Africa.

Since the commissioning of the DISCO steel project in 2024, it has achieved large-scale production of pig iron and steel billets.

According to the company, the first phase of the project has a designed annual production capacity of 600,000 tons, and plans to gradually increase it to 5 million tons of annual production capacity through subsequent expansion, which is expected to become an important steel production base on the African continent.

Project Director Wilfred Mozi confirmed to the Zimbabwe Herald that the first batch of orders have been generated in the South African market. Although the scale is currently limited, it "marks a key step in the expansion of the regional market."

The export of the DISCO project coincides with the adjustment period of the South African steel industry.

ArcelorMittal South Africa, the country's leading company, is facing severe challenges. Its long steel production line may be shut down due to operating pressure, and about 3,500 jobs are at risk.

The company attributed the difficulties to three pressures: weak demand for Chinese infrastructure, intensified competition from short-process steel mills using scrap steel as raw materials, and the impact of imported steel prices.

There are different interpretations in the industry regarding Zimbabwe's previous import control policy. Some analysts are worried that South Africa may take trade countermeasures, believing that "protective policies may trigger a chain reaction"; while other views emphasize the role of market laws, pointing out that "if South Africa's local supply is short, import demand will remain rigid."

It is worth noting that as a key project of China-Africa capacity cooperation, the subsequent development of the Dingsen project not only involves market expansion at the enterprise level, but also tests the regional industrial chain coordination capabilities. With the advancement of the construction of the African Continental Free Trade Area, the regional resource allocation of the steel industry may usher in a new adjustment window.

Anti-dumping Investigation May Rewrite the Fate of Turkey's Stainless Steel Industry

According to foreign media reports on May 23, 2025, the annual import scale of stainless steel of up to US$2 billion makes Turkey's stainless steel industry particularly vulnerable in the wave of international trade.

According to Arslan Küçükemre, chairman of the Turkish Stainless Steel Industry and Enterprises Association (PASID), the current anti-dumping investigation launched against stainless steel products imported from China and Indonesia, and the increase in related tariffs from 8% to 12%, are becoming the "Sword of Damocles" hanging over the head of the industry. The results of this investigation have become a "life and death test" for the Turkish stainless steel industry.

Küçükemre said that the results of the anti-dumping investigation, which are expected to be announced in August or September this year, will largely determine the future direction of the industry.

If the results are favorable, the long-standing uncertainty in the industry will be ended; but if the results are unfavorable to the industry, the plight of the Turkish stainless steel industry will be further exacerbated.

By then, not only will multiple related industries such as kitchenware, white appliances, auto parts and machinery manufacturing be affected, but product prices may also rise, leading to serious problems such as reduced production scale and job losses.

Despite the challenges, Turkey's stainless steel industry still has its own advantages. As the world's ninth largest stainless steel consumer, Turkey has good conditions for developing integrated stainless steel investment.

Cukiemre stressed that stainless steel production is of great significance to Turkey, and the country should speed up the construction of production facilities to change the situation of dependence on imports.

However, the current Turkish steel industry is focused on additional investment projects such as capacity expansion, energy cost reduction and green steel, and its enthusiasm for developing stainless steel production capacity is limited.

In terms of exports, Turkish stainless steel producers have sold their products to Turkic countries and the Middle East.

Cukiemre pointed out that the Syrian market is expected to become a new export growth point for Turkey's stainless steel industry in the future. For all stainless steel products and manufacturers that use stainless steel, it is an opportunity that cannot be missed. Enterprises should launch marketing activities in the Syrian market as early as possible to seize the opportunity.

In addition, Kuikemre also mentioned that under the current economic situation in Turkey, high interest rates have become the biggest "stumbling block" to inhibiting production and economic growth.

Excessively high interest rates have seriously weakened the investment and production willingness of enterprises, and many enterprises have chosen to wait and see, which has further led to a contraction in production scale and a reduction in jobs.

As a representative of the industry, he called on the government to introduce financial support policies and solutions to inject vitality into industrial investment and help the Turkish stainless steel industry to hand in a satisfactory answer in this "life and death test".

Indonesia's Stainless Steel Has Been Hit by A Dimensionality Reduction, and The European Market Is in A Structural Crisis

According to foreign media reports on May 24, 2025, Kallanish reported that due to seasonal downturns and weak prices, the market conditions for stainless steel production are not expected to improve in the next few months, and the industry is expected to face major difficulties in 2025. According to the latest "Stainless Steel Mirror" released by the International Bureau of Stainless Steel and Special Alloys (BIR), Indonesia's "dimensionality reduction strike" formed by its cost advantage has caused the European stainless steel industry chain to fall into a structural crisis, and the industry's cold winter may continue.

Jost Van Cleef, chairman of the BIR Stainless Steel Committee and representative of Oryx Stainless, clearly pointed out that due to weak seasonal demand and continued low prices, the stainless steel market is unlikely to show signs of recovery in the coming months. Ruggiero Rico, executive director of Nichel Leghe, Italy, said bluntly: "The current market has not seen any signs of bottoming out, and the sluggish domestic demand in Europe is triggering vicious price competition."

Data shows that the entire European stainless steel industry chain has suffered a comprehensive impact. The market volume and price of plates and long products have fallen, the prices of hot-rolled coils and their derivatives have continued to bottom out, and factory inventories are generally high.

Even more lethal is that the cost of stainless steel products produced by Indonesia using the nickel pig iron process is nearly 30% lower than that of Europe's traditional process based on scrap steel smelting, forming a crushing competitive advantage.

"While European steel mills are still paying complex costs for each ton of scrap steel, Indonesian products have penetrated the market with their price sword." Rico revealed that the price of scrap steel in the EU has fallen by more than 15% in the past six months, and the spot price of 304-grade stainless steel scrap is approaching the psychological barrier of 1,200 euros/ton (about 1,355 US dollars). The industry expects that it will fall below this support level in June.

This intercontinental industrial game has triggered the reconstruction of the European industrial chain. Many companies have confirmed that they are re-evaluating their raw material strategies and considering using nickel pig iron to replace scrap steel or directly importing steel billets.

Analysis pointed out that although the EU tried to resist Asian products through tariff barriers, producers such as Indonesia continued to penetrate the European market through re-export trade.

Industry observers warned that if Europe cannot break through technical bottlenecks and reduce production costs as soon as possible, its century-old stainless steel industry system may be fundamentally shaken.

As the global production capacity shifts to Southeast Asia at an accelerated pace, this industrial change before 2025 may give rise to a new world stainless steel industry pattern.

Trump Approves Nippon Steel's Acquisition of U.S. Steel

On May 23, U.S. President Trump approved Nippon Steel's acquisition of U.S. Steel. He pointed out that "most of this investment will be implemented in the next 14 months and will be the largest investment in Pennsylvania's history", emphasizing that U.S. Steel will continue to be headquartered in Pittsburgh, the state, and said: "By imposing tariffs, steel will once again and permanently become 'Made in the United States'". This means that one and a half years after Nippon Steel announced the acquisition plan, the merger and acquisition of U.S. Steel is moving towards realization. Regarding Nippon Steel's acquisition of U.S. Steel, there are reports that if the Trump administration approves the acquisition plan, Nippon Steel will plan to invest $14 billion in equipment and other investments in the United States.