Editing Stainless steel (section)

== Production ==
{{more citations needed section|date=March 2020}}
<!--EVERY PURPORTED FACTUAL STATEMENT SHOULD BE SUPPORTED BY AN INLINE CITATION THAT STATES THE SAME THING THAT WE SAY IN THE SENTENCE. SENTENCES WITHOUT SOURCES ARE, BY DEFINITION, PLAGIARISM AS UNDERSTOOD BY WESTERN, ENGLISH-SPEAKING ACADEMIA. (NO ONE HERE "WROTE THE BOOK" ON STAINLESS STEEL; THE MATERIAL IS BEING TAKEN FROM SOMEONE'S WRITING, SOMEWHERE. IF IT IS NOT CITED, IT IS ACADEMIC DISHONESTY.) See Lipson's small book, "Doing Honest Work in College." PLEASE, NO MORE ADDITIONS WITHOUT SOURCES.-->

Most of the world's stainless steel production is produced by the following processes:

* [[Electric arc furnace]] (EAF): stainless steel scrap, other ferrous scrap, and ferrous alloys (Fe Cr, Fe Ni, Fe Mo, Fe Si) are melted together. The molten metal is then poured into a ladle and transferred into the AOD process (see below).
* [[Argon oxygen decarburization]] (AOD): carbon in the molten steel is removed (by turning it into [[carbon monoxide]] gas) and other compositional adjustments are made to achieve the desired chemical composition.
* [[Continuous casting#Steel|Continuous casting]] (CC): the molten metal is solidified into slabs for flat products (a typical section is {{Convert|20|cm|in|abbr=}} thick and {{Convert|2|m|ft|1|abbr=}} wide) or [[Semi-finished casting products#Bloom|blooms]] (sections vary widely but {{Convert|25 x 25|cm|in|abbr=}} is the average size). 
* [[Rolling (metalworking)#Hot rolling|Hot rolling]] (HR): slabs and blooms are reheated in a furnace and hot-rolled. Hot rolling reduces the thickness of the slabs to produce about {{Convert|3|mm|in|abbr=on}}-thick coils. Blooms, on the other hand, are hot-rolled into bars, which are cut into lengths at the exit of the rolling mill, or wire rod, which is coiled.
* Cold finishing (CF) depends on the type of product being finished:
**Hot-rolled coils are pickled in acid solutions to remove the oxide scale on the surface, then subsequently cold rolled in [[Tadeusz Sendzimir|Sendzimir]] rolling mills and annealed in a protective atmosphere until the desired thickness and surface finish is obtained. Further operations such as slitting and tube forming can be performed in downstream facilities.
**Hot-rolled bars are straightened, then machined to the required tolerance and finish.
**Wire rod coils are subsequently processed to produce cold-finished bars on drawing benches, fasteners on boltmaking machines, and wire on single or multipass drawing machines.

World stainless steel production figures are published yearly by the International Stainless Steel Forum. Of the EU production figures, Italy, Belgium, and Spain were notable, while Canada and Mexico produced none. China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, the US, and Indonesia were large producers while Russia reported little production.<ref name="ISSF-2021">{{Cite web |last=International Stainless Steel Forum |title=Stainless Steel in Figures 2021 |url=https://www.worldstainless.org/files/issf/non-image-files/PDF/ISSF_Stainless_Steel_in_Figures_2021_English_public_version.pdf |url-status=live |access-date=1 October 2021 |archive-date=30 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210630080307/https://www.worldstainless.org/files/issf/non-image-files/PDF/ISSF_Stainless_Steel_in_Figures_2021_English_public_version.pdf }}</ref>
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:right;"
|+World stainless steel production in flat and long products (metric tons, '000s)
|-
! Year
! {{verth|va=middle|European Union}}
! {{verth|va=middle|Americas}}
! {{verth|va=middle|China}}
! {{verth|va=middle|Asia excluding China}}
! {{verth|va=middle|Other countries}}
! World
|-
|2021
|{{val|7181}}
|{{val|2368}}
|{{val|32632}}
|{{val|7792}}
|{{val|8316}}
|{{val|58289}}
|-
|2020
| {{val|6323}}
| {{val|2144}}
| {{val|30139}}
| {{val|6429}}
| {{val|5857}}
| {{val|50892}}
|-
|2019
| {{val|6805}}
| {{val|2593}}
| {{val|29400}}
| {{val|7894}}
| {{val|5525}}
| {{val|52218}}
|-
|2018
| {{val|7386}}
| {{val|2808}}
| {{val|26706}}
| {{val|8195}}
| {{val|5635}}
| {{val|50729}}
|-
| 2017
| {{val|7377}}
| {{val|2754}}
| {{val|25774}}
| {{val|8030}}
| {{val|4146}}
| {{val|48081}}
|-
| 2016
| {{val|7280}}
| {{val|2931}}
| {{val|24938}}
| {{val|9956}}
| {{val|672}}
| {{val|45778}}
|-
| 2015
| {{val|7169}}
| {{val|2747}}
| {{val|21562}}
| {{val|9462}}
| {{val|609}}
| {{val|41548}}
|-
| 2014
| {{val|7252}}
| {{val|2813}}
| {{val|21692}}
| {{val|9333}}
| {{val|595}}
| {{val|41686}}
|-
| 2013
| {{val|7147}}
| {{val|2454}}
| {{val|18984}}
| {{val|9276}}
| {{val|644}}
| {{val|38506}}
|}

Breakdown of production by stainless steels families in 2017:

* Austenitic stainless steels Cr-Ni (also called 300-series, see "Grades" section above): 54%
* Austenitic stainless steels Cr-Mn (also called 200-series): 21%
* Ferritic and martensitic stainless steels (also called 400-series): 23%