BIR World Mirror on Stainless Steel & Special Alloys – Quarterly Report October 2025: Demand well short of expectations in post-holiday period
A concise summary of the BIR World Mirror on Stainless Steel & Special Alloys – Quarterly Report October 2025. Full version with detailed market reports available in the Members Only section of the BIR website.
With little more than two months to go before the designated implementation of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), experts in the stainless steel sector are speculating on its likely impact and on whether it has the potential to shift the balance more in favour of environmentally friendly production using scrap.
For the moment, however, scrap-based producers in Europe are under increasing threat from low-cost, high-volume imports from Asia at a time of weakening economic conditions across Europe and generally lacklustre stainless steel demand, it is reported in the latest World Mirror publication from the BIR Stainless Steel & Special Alloys Committee.
Following the conclusion of Europe’s summer holiday season, September traditionally brings a spike in demand for stainless steel products. Deep into the final quarter of 2025, however, consumption is still well below expectations and price pressure remains high among producers. The imminent prospect of another seasonal slowdown in December is intensifying the strain on producers.
For scrap suppliers, their prices are continuing to suffer because of the need to remain competitive against slabs and nickel pig iron. Particular focus is falling on the high volumes of slabs arriving from Indonesia as these replace scrap but are often produced under environmentally questionable conditions.
In Asia too, the stainless steel market has remained generally weak. Taiwanese mills ordered low quantities of scrap in the third quarter and demand is expected to remain subdued in the final months of the year. South Korea’s stainless steel scrap demand was also under-par in the July-September quarter but more stable conditions are anticipated for what remains of 2025. Japan’s domestic consumption of stainless scrap has been steady whereas exports have dropped to low levels compared to previous years as local mills increasingly use domestic scrap. Reports are circulating that China’s stainless mills are cutting production; however, stock levels are still relatively high and will take some time to decline.
Production at many stainless steel mills in India is being influenced by US tariffs on exported goods. During the first half of 2025, however, India’s stainless steel production surged 26% to more than 2 million tonnes, with finished flats and longs seeing respective increases of 24% and 28%. Over the same period, India’s stainless steel scrap imports totalled around 730,000 tonnes for a year-on-year jump of some 40%. That said, currency fluctuations in South Korea and Japan, as well as with the Euro, have been playing a significant role in the workability of scrap imports, as have volatile ocean freight rates.
Nickel pig iron and ferro-nickel imports into India have been strong throughout 2025. Shifts in the consumption of scrap are becoming a cause for concern; some of the stainless mills which have been employing large numbers of workers to handle scrap are now said to be re-thinking their deployment of manpower.
In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia remains the largest consumer of stainless steel for major infrastructure schemes, with anti-dumping duties protecting domestic producers. Domestic scrap availability is limited and restrictions are being applied to scrap exports. The fact that internal demand must be met through local production or imports is applying pressure to supply chains.
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With contributions from its members, BIR publishes periodical commodity reports under the label "BIR World Mirror". These detailed reports exist for Non-Ferrous Metals, Ferrous, Stainless Steel / Alloys, Paper, Plastics and Latin America and provide BIR members with up-to-date information on the respective commodity or market segment.
The report on Non-Ferrous Metals appears once every two months, whereas Ferrous, Stainless Steel, Paper and Plastics are published quarterly. Latin America is covered twice per year.