The Brussels-based International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) has announced that stainless steel melt shop production increased by 7.4 percent year on year in the first nine months of 2017 compared with the same time span in 2016. 

The ISSF has calculated that 36.1 million metric tons of stainless steel was produced in the first three quarters of 2017 compared with 33.6 million metric tons in the first nine months of 2016. 

China's output of stainless steel was nearly 19.7 million metric tons in the first three quarters of 2017, or more than half of the global total. Its output is up by 8.8 percent compared with 2016. 

Production in Europe is up by only 1.7 percent in 2017, while U.S. output rose by 14.8 percent in the first three quarters of 2017—the highest growth rate among the world’s largest regions. In the U.S., output has risen from 1.8 million metric tons in the first three quarters of 2016 to 2.1 million metric tons in the same time frame in 2017.