The ferritic stainless family: the appropriate answer to nickel volatility?

Due to recent nickel price volatility, ferritic stainless steels, having no or very low nickel content, can be very interesting to stainless steels users. Although ferrite is the most common structure in steel, it represents only about 26% of the total stainless steel production nowadays. The paper presents the ferritic stainless steel family: mechanical properties of the grade including drawability as well as corrosion resistance properties. Experimental data of the newly developed 20% Cr ferritic grade are discussed and compared to the properties of existing 200 and 300 series grades. High temperature properties of ferritic stainless steels designed for exhaust systems are also presented.