South Korea: Hot-rolled steel strip production, sales fall y-o-y in Jan-Nov'22

South Korea's hot-rolled steel strip production dropped by 8.1% y-o-y to 30,209,347 tonnes (t) in January-November 2022 in comparison with 32,888,610 t in the same period last year.

Sales also dropped 9.5% y-o-y to 12.85 mnt in January-November in comparison with 14.21 mnt in the same period last year. It is also expected to decrease in December compared to last year; therefore, an overall decrease of 10% is expected by the year-end.

Of total sales, domestic sales fell by 11.8% y-o-y to 7.95 mnt in January-November compared to 9.02 mnt last year. Exports during the period stood at 4.90 mnt, down 5.4% from 5.18 mnt a year ago.

The decline in output and sales was majorly due to floods at POSCO's pohang works and the guerrilla strikes at Hyundai Steel's Dangjin Steelworks amidst a delay in recovery of demand from both the domestic and global industry.

Output, sales down y-o-y in November

Production volumes in November stood at 204 mnt, down 7.3% from 2.2 mnt last month. Compared to the same period last year, output fell by 30.7% from 2.94 mnt, the lowest production performance this year.

Sales also dropped 1.3% m-o-m to 1.13 mnt in November compared to 1.15 mnt in the previous month. Sales fell by 10% compared to 1.26 mnt in the same period last year.

Domestic sales stood at 674,994 t, up 3.6% from October. However, sales declined by 16.6% compared to the same month last year. Exports were at 463,190 t, down 7.7% from a month ago, but up 1.9% compared to the same month of last year.

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