South Korea: CR steel output drops 10% y-o-y in Nov'21

South Korean steel manufacturers have registered the lowest production of cold-rolled (CR) steel sheets in Nov'21. CR steel sheet output edged down by 9.9% to 0.55 million tonnes (mn t) last month compared to the year-ago period. The decline in output is attributed to the reduction in domestic and overseas sales of CR steel sheets in Q4CY'21, according to the Korea Steel Association.

Production, sales of CR steel sheets

Total production of cold rolled steel sheets was 7.18 mn t, and total sales volume was at 7.02 mn t, up 6.7% and a modest 3.8%, respectively in Jan-Nov'21. Out of total production and sales of CR steel sheets, domestic sales amounted to 3.06 mn t and overseas sales at 3.96 mn t in Jan-Nov'21.

Domestic sales

Cold-rolled steel sheet sales fell 14.3% y-o-y to 0.05 mn t.

The decline in domestic sales was greater than that of overseas sales compared to last year.

Domestic sales of cold-rolled steel sheets in November were 0.23 mn t, down 17% from the same month of the previous year, and much below 0.24 mn t seen for the first time this year.

Overseas sales

Overseas sales were registered at 0.33 mn t, down 6.6% m-o-m. CR steel exports to China decreased to 0.03 tonnes (down 42.5% from the previous year), while volumes to Thailand were down 23.4% y-o-y to 0.02 mn t. Volumes to Mexico, at 0.02 mn t, were down 20.5% y-o-y.

However, exports of cold-rolled sheets to Europe increased to 0.01 mn t, up 127% y-o-y. Volumes to India, at 1,971 t, were up 4.1% y-o-y, while Indonesia volumes, at 0.01 mn t, were up 47.7% y-o-y.

~Inputs from SteelDaily