The International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) has its released figures for the first quarter (Q1) of 2014. The results were mostly positive showing that stainless steel melt shop production increased by 6.8 percent to 10.2 million tons. Overall, production in most regions increased.
Specifically for North and South America, the figures showed that production increased by 11.9 percent to 0.7 million tons. This was one of the highest increases across all the continents. Not far behind the Americas, but with a larger ton increase, was China with an 11.1 percent increase of 5.1 million tons.
The only countries with a production decrease were Germany (declined by 18.9 percent), Italy (by 2.4 percent) and Austria (by 20 percent).