Source Review: GMK Center — Global Stainless Steel Production 2024

Verdict: Consistent Confidence: medium

Industry-trade aggregator citing World Stainless Steel Association primary data. The U.S. (1.95 Mt/yr) and global (62.6 Mt/yr) production figures are widely-corroborated industry consensus. q1's calc uses both as supply denominators. No conflicts with higher-tier sources. The aggregator's presentation is dense bullet/infographic format — minimal editorial extrapolation, mostly raw numbers. Useful as a direct primary-anchor proxy for stainless supply. The implication for q1: steel is non-binding for reusable Starship operations (saturates at ~710k launches/yr at 100-flight reuse) and binding only for expendable (~7,100 launches/yr saturates US stainless).

Abstract

GMK Center's December 2024 infographic reports global stainless steel production statistics for calendar 2023-2024. Global stainless output grew 7% year-over-year to 62.621 million tonnes in 2024, up from 58.4 Mt in 2023. China dominates at 39.44 Mt/yr (63% of global output). The United States produced 1.95 Mt of stainless in 2024, a 6.9% increase year-over-year. The data is sourced from worldstainless / World Stainless Steel Association statistics.

Key claims

• global-stainless-2024: "Global stainless steel production in 2024 increased by 7% compared to 2023 to 62.621 million tons."
• us-stainless-2024: US production "1.95 million tons" in 2024.
• china-share: China at 39.44 Mt = 63% of global stainless output.

Reviewer notes

Tier D, industry-trade aggregation of WSSA primary data. For q1 the load-bearing question is: what mass of 304L stainless steel does a Starship + Super Heavy stack require, and how does that scale with launches/year (for a reusable fleet vs. expendable)? At ~250-300 t steel per full stack, 100 new stacks/yr ≈ 25-30 kt — about 1.5% of US stainless production. 10,000 new stacks/yr (expendable extreme) ≈ 2.5-3 Mt = 1.3-1.5× US total stainless. For a reusable fleet (~500 vehicles × 20 launches each = 10,000 launches), steel need is ~125-150 kt one-time, not a constraint.