Ferritic stainless steel is more of a magnetic type of steel. It only contains 0.10% carbon. These metals cannot be hardened using heat treatment. It also does not weld to a high standard which somewhat limits the use of these metals, but they are still used in many different applications.

The most common use of the ferritic metal is in the automotive industry for exhaust systems as this metal is heat resistant. This metal contains little to no nickel. Unfortunately this metal isn't very strong as it contains a low count of carbon. If the metal is thicker than 3mm, it will lead to very poor weld toughness compared to the austenitic stainless steel.