The publication of stainless steel quarterly financial results from leading manufacturers is an important opportunity for all operators of the sector to get the "market signals" and make some predictions of near future trends.

Here we recall only the basic data of the 3rd quarter of 2015 (July-September): the overview that emerges shows clearly that one producer, Aperam, stands out from the others both in terms of EBITDA (€ 96 million) and net profit (€ 27,5 million). On the other side, the major sales manufacturer (Outokumpu € 1.487 million) had a rather negative profitability.

All manufacturers have decreased data revenue compared to 2014, with an average decline of 14.5%, caused by the negative trend of the raw materials and therefore the average selling price.

In the end, although with caution, the 'three giants' seem to agree in slightly positive forecasting for 2016, which promises a recovery favouring a compression of negative factors - such as the nickel price stabilization - and driven by imports of the EU and USA.