In the early spring of 2025, the stainless steel industry is standing on a new historical starting point, facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities. With the steady recovery of the global economy and China's sustained economic growth, stainless steel as an important basic material, its market demand continues to expand, but at the same time is also facing multiple pressures such as overcapacity, international trade risks. According to the latest data, China's stainless steel production has continued to grow in recent years, stainless steel production in 2024 has exceeded 39.44 million tons, an increase of 7.5% year-on-year, accounting for nearly 60% of the global total production, ranking first in the world. Stainless steel crude steel production is expected to reach 42.24 million tons in 2025, the market demand remains strong. 

This growth trend is due to the promotion of industrialization and the continuous expansion of downstream applications, such as home appliances, transportation, construction, machinery manufacturing and other areas of stainless steel materials demand continues to grow. However, the stainless steel industry's overcapacity problem is also increasingly prominent. In recent years, above-scale stainless steel mills have continued to extend the industrial chain to enhance their market competitiveness, including Yongjin, Hongwang, Delong and other enterprises, including many stainless steel producers are actively expanding production capacity.

Domestic stainless steel cold rolled production is expected to increase by more than 1 million tons in 2025 year-on-year, an increase of 6.8%. This has led to increasingly fierce competition in the market, and the overall stainless steel prices have shown a steady upward trend, but the fluctuation is small. Special specifications, special materials of stainless steel prices rose by a large margin, while ordinary specifications, ordinary material prices rose by a relatively small margin. In the face of this situation, stainless steel enterprises need to seek new breakthroughs. 

On the one hand, enterprises need to strengthen technological innovation and product research and development, improve product quality and performance to meet the market demand for high-quality stainless steel materials. On the other hand, enterprises also need to actively explore new applications and markets, such as stainless steel decorative tubes, whole house stainless steel and other emerging applications have become new growth points. At the same time, the introduction of intelligent production and management mode will also become an important direction for the transformation and upgrading of the stainless steel industry. It is worth noting that, with the implementation of the national “double carbon” policy, stainless steel as a whole life cycle of the most low-carbon attributes of the metal materials, will be more selected by the market. This will promote stainless steel enterprises to increase environmental investment, promote green production, reduce pollution emissions and resource waste. At the same time, industry chain integration will also become a trend in the stainless steel industry, through the integration of upstream and downstream resources, to achieve the synergistic development of the industry chain and complement each other's strengths, and improve the competitiveness of the whole industry chain.

In terms of international trade, although China's stainless steel products are facing the challenge of foreign anti-dumping, countervailing duties and raising tariffs and other trade measures, but the consolidation of the global economic recovery trend has strengthened the foundation for the growth of international trade. At the same time, China and Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and other “One Belt, One Road” along the accelerated industrial chain cooperation, will also bring new development opportunities for the stainless steel industry. Looking ahead, the stainless steel industry in 2025 will be full of variables and challenges, but at the same time also pregnant with unlimited business opportunities. Those who can seize the business opportunities, the courage to innovate the enterprise, will certainly stand out in the fierce market competition, for the industry to bring valuable success experience. In this era of change, the stainless steel industry is experiencing unprecedented transformation and upgrading, let us look forward to a more prosperous and sustainable future.