Chinese stainless steel production began in the 1950s, but it has been slow to develop. After the reform and opening up, the rapid development of the economy and the continuous improvement of people's living standards have promoted the consumption and demand of stainless steel products. China's stainless steel production also ushered in a period of rapid growth. Since 1992, China's stainless steel demand has grown rapidly year by year. By 2001, China ranked first in the world with an apparent consumption of 2.25 million tons. In 2003, it exceeded the sum of consumption between the United States and Japan. In 2012, the apparent consumption of stainless steel in China reached 13.61 million tons. In the first three quarters of 2013, the apparent consumption of stainless steel in China reached 10.645 million tons, an increase of 1.501 million tons, an increase of 16.42%.

    
In contrast, the development of China's stainless steel industry is relatively backward, and capacity expansion is slow. Until 2000, in order to meet the rapid expansion of China's stainless steel consumer demand, China began to vigorously develop the stainless steel industry, and the launch of a large number of new stainless steel projects made the stainless steel production capacity expand rapidly. From 2000 to 2005, China's stainless steel output increased by 2.86 million tons, an increase of nearly 6 times. By 2006, China's stainless steel output reached 5.3 million tons, an increase of 67.88% year-on-year, becoming the world's largest stainless steel producer. In 2012, China's stainless steel crude steel output reached 16.857 million tons, an increase of 11.3%. According to the statistics of the Stainless Steel Branch of China Special Steel Enterprise Association, the output of China's stainless steel crude steel in the first three quarters of 2013 was as high as 13.664 million tons, an increase of 2.257 million tons compared with the same period of 2012, an increase of 19.79%.

It can be seen from the figure that in the past decade, China's stainless steel production capacity has increased sharply. From 2002 to 2012, the average growth rate of China's stainless steel products exceeded 30%, much higher than the development level of other markets, and the growth rate of stainless steel production capacity surpassed. The growth rate of apparent consumption of stainless steel. Especially since 2005, the increase in stainless steel production is much larger than the increase in the apparent consumption of stainless steel. Since 2007, China has had a clue to overcapacity. By 2009, China's stainless steel production has been higher than the apparent consumption of stainless steel, and the situation of overcapacity has become more and more obvious in recent years. In the face of excess capacity that cannot be consumed in China, more and more steel mills are beginning to focus on overseas markets, hoping to expand their exports to consume excess capacity.

Before 2007, due to the shortage of domestic stainless steel market, the export volume of stainless steel was relatively small, but it can be seen from the figure that the export volume has been increasing. In 2008-2009, stainless steel exports declined due to strong domestic stainless steel consumption. Until 2010, China's stainless steel production far exceeded the demand for stainless steel, and the excess capacity led to a sharp increase in stainless steel exports, and has maintained a relatively strong growth momentum. In 2010, China's total foreign trade volume of stainless steel was changed from “net import” to “net export” for the first time. The annual net export volume of stainless steel was 387,700 tons. In 2012, due to the sluggish global demand and overcapacity of stainless steel, China's stainless steel exports fell slightly to 2.126 million tons, of which the export volume of stainless steel coils was 1.403 million tons, down 8.48% year-on-year; the export of stainless steel narrow belts was 120,000 tons, down 13.04% year-on-year. %; exported 410,000 tons of stainless steel pipes, an increase of 6.21% year-on-year: 193,000 tons of stainless steel profiles, down 11.87% year-on-year; exports of stainless steel primary products 179 tons. In the first three quarters of 2013, China's stainless steel exports have reached 1,937,700 tons, an increase of 440,700 tons compared with the same period of last year, an increase of 29.44%.

According to statistics from ISSF, global stainless steel production reached 35.4 million tons in 2012, a record high, up 5.2% year-on-year. The increase in production is mainly from China. At present, China is the world's largest producer of stainless steel, and TISCO is ranked first with its capacity of 3.3 million tons. In 2012, Taigang's stainless steel output reached 3.1016 million tons for four consecutive years. Ranked first in the world. However, in 2012, the total export volume of Taigang stainless steel was only 289,229 tons, and the export volume only accounted for 9.31% of the total output of stainless steel. It can be seen from the table that the export proportion of several large stainless steel manufacturers in China is also less than 10%, and the export volume is much lower than that of Taigang.

Among the stainless steel products exported from China, stainless steel coils still occupy a major proportion, up to 66%. According to customs statistics, in the first half of 2013, China’s largest export volume of stainless steel coils was Taiwan, with exports of 352,150 tons, followed by South Korea and Vietnam, 165,936 tons and 66,160 tons respectively. In contrast, in the first half of 2013, China exported relatively few stainless steel coils to Europe and the United States, the most of which was the United States, with 34,891 tons, followed by Belgium and Italy, with 22,912 tons and 14,566 tons respectively. It can be seen that the main export area of ​​China's stainless steel products is the countries and regions around China, while the recognition of stainless steel products in China and Europe is still at a low level, so the number of stainless steel products imported from China is at a low level.

Judging from the export of stainless steel varieties, due to the increasing variety of stainless steel produced by domestic steel companies, the production of most common steel grades has reached the level of international standards, so in the export of stainless steel, still ordinary steel Mainly. In contrast, the production capacity of high-end stainless steel grades is still insufficient and the level of exports is extremely low. For example, in December 2012, China successfully exported high-grade pipeline steel spiral welded pipes for oil extraction to Europe, and many stainless steels used in high-end fields, such as seamless steel pipes for power station boilers, used in the pressure vessel industry. Super austenitic stainless steel, extruded stainless steel for nuclear power, etc. have just achieved import substitution. Although many international associations have been certified, it is still a long time to get export orders to achieve internationalization.