South Korea: Ferrous scrap inventory at major mills rise marginally w-o-w

This week, the ferrous scrap inventory from eight South Korean steel mills witnessed a slight increase of 1% to 872,000 tonnes (t) in comparison with 862,000 t reported in the previous week. The rise was seen particularly in the southern region. Nevertheless, inventory levels remained slightly below the typical annual average. Despite this, there is no perceivable scarcity owing to the subdued state of the product market.

Region-wise inventory

Central region: This week, the ferrous scrap inventory of steel mills in the central region was at 478,000 t. This marks a marginal increase of approximately 1,000 t compared to last week. Among the companies, Hyundai Steel's Incheon plant saw a rise of 7.6%, while the Dangjin plant remained stable compared to the previous week. However, Dongkuk Steel experienced a decline of 6.3% w-o-w, and Hwanghan Steel saw an 8.7% decrease compared to the previous week.

Southern region: In the southern region, steelmakers' inventories totalled 394,000 t, marking an increase of approximately 11,000 t from the previous week. This translates to a growth rate of around 2.8%. Notably, the inventory surge in the southern region was primarily fuelled by significant increases at Daehan Steel and YK Steel, both of which announced price cuts on Friday. The combined inventory of these companies soared by 20% compared to the previous week.

Among other companies, POSCO witnessed a modest increase of 1.7%, while Hyundai Steel's Pohang Plant maintained its inventory level. However, Korea Steel experienced a decrease of 4.2%.

It is noteworthy that, this year's iron scrap inventory, when compared to the average inventory for the last week of April over 2021-2023, is actually more than 110,000 t lower.

Note: This article has been published in accordance with an article exchange agreement between SteelDaily and BigMint.