South Korea: Hot-rolled steel strip exports decline, imports rise in CY'21

South Korea's demand for hot-rolled wide steel strips has remained robust through CY'21, resulting in a decline in export volumes with marginal increase in imports.

Source: Korea Iron and Steel Association (KOSA) | Inputs from Steel Daily

Export volumes stood at 3.73 million tonnes (mn t) in CY'21, down significantly by 24.9% against 4.96 mn t in the preceding year. Slow recovery of global economies from the Covid-19 pandemic and accordance of priority to domestic needs over exports were the key factors behind the decline.

Exports to China, Vietnam and Indonesia declined whereas shipments to Japan, India and the USA increased.

On a monthly basis, exports jumped by 43.3%, while on an annual basis they rose by 18.7% to 0.43 mn t.

Imports
Import volumes showed a marginal rise due to a shortage of containers and vessels along with other trade hurdles in CY'20. Imports stood at 2.59 mn t in CY'21 compared with 2.53 mn t in CY'20.

Further, the demand from the shipbuilding industry grew at a faster pace than domestic supply capacity this year which led to an increase in import bookings.

Import volumes witnessed a drop of 23.6% on the month to 0.17 mn t in Dec'21. However, increased by 13.9% on an annual basis.