South Korea: Hot-rolled steel output up, sales dip in Jan-Nov'21

Total hot-rolled (HR) steel production of South Korean mills amounted to 32.89 million tonnes (mn t) in Jan-Nov'21, an increase of 5% compared to the year-ago period. However, despite this increase in production, total sales registered a marginal y-o-y decline in the period under consideration, as per Korea Steel Association data.

Exports weigh down overall sales

Hot-rolled steel sales volumes were recorded at 14.2 mn t in Jan-Nov'21, a decrease of 2.6% compared to the same period last year, of which sales to the domestic market accounted for 9.02 mn t, an increase of 3.7% y-o-y. However, exports plunged by 11.8% y-o-y to 5.18 mn t in the period under review, thereby, leading to a decline in overall sales.

As a result, the share of overseas sales in the total sales accounted for 43.2%, a decrease of 3.3% compared to the previous year.

Factors that led to reduction in external sales

• Increase in the company's captive consumption of HR products.
  
  
• A significant decline in exports.
  
  

HR production, sales in Nov'21

Hot-rolled production in Nov'21 was recorded at 2.94 mn t, an increase of 5.7% from the previous month and 0.4% from the same month of the previous year. Domestic sales stood almost stable at 0.80 mn t last month, but decreased by 4.4% compared to the same month of the previous year.

~Inputs from SteelDaily