Stainless steel consumption in Russia fell by 2.8% in the first quarter

In the first quarter of this year, consumption of primary stainless steel products (excluding seamless and welded pipes) in Russia amounted to 115.3 thousand tonnes, down 2.8% compared with the same period in 2023.
The consumption of cold-rolled flat stainless steel products increased by 7.3%, while the consumption of billets increased by 55.4%. However, the consumption volume of long products decreased by 9.8%, hot-rolled flat products by 10.8% and wire products by 58.1%.
The main indicators showed multidirectional movement. Russian stainless steel production rose by 1.5% to 29.5 thousand tonnes, while exports increased by 1.3% to 1.4 thousand tonnes. At the same time, imports fell by 4% to 87.2 thousand tonnes.
In the first quarter of 2024, the share of foreign products in total consumption was 74.4% (76.2% in January-March 2023), and the share of Russian products was 25.6% (23.8%). The sectors most dependent on imported products continued to be flat cold rolled products (97.7% vs 97.6% in the first quarter of 2023), wire (70.2% vs 82.5% in the first quarter of 2023) and flat hot rolled products (70.1% vs 81.7%). The share of imported products in the consumption of long products was 24.5 % (24.2 %) and the share of billets was 20.8 % (9.2 %).