On Nov. 7th, Poshang Research Institute (POSRI) released a prediction at the stainless steel conference held in Seoul that the global stainless steel consumption may rise to 50 million tons next year.

    POSRI predicts 2017 global stainless steel consumption will reach 47 million tons, an increase of 3% over the same period of last year. Among them, stainless steel bar, pipe consumption is estimated at 6.7 million tons, accounting for 17% of total stainless steel consumption; stainless steel flat consumption is expected to reach 33.46 million tons, accounting for 87% of total stainless steel consumption.

    POSRI forecasts that demand for stainless steel products in Southeast Asia and India will show significant growth and is expected to reach about 2.17 million tons by 2017 and 297 million tons by 2018.

    Meanwhile, stainless steel market in South Korea will change in the future as demand for electric vehicles and nickel consumption increase. POSRI believes that the future of stainless steel will be in the solar energy, wind energy, biogas and other environmental energy industries have been widely used.