South Korea: Major steel mills post decline in sales of heavy plates in CY'21

South Korean steel majors - POSCO, Hyundai Steel and Dongkuk Steel - registered a marginal y-o-y decline of 0.9% in their heavy plates sales in CY'21. Total sales of these three companies were recorded at 8.86 million tonnes (mn t) last year. Notably, this is the second consecutive yearly decline in heavy plates sales.

Out of the total sales, 6.73 mn t were domestic sales, higher by 7% compared to the previous year. This rise was backed by increased demand from the shipbuilding sector. Export volumes, however, dropped by 21.2% y-o-y to 1.99 mn t, leading to a decline in overall sales.

Meanwhile, heavy plates production by major South Korean mills was recorded at 8.86 mn t, a slight decrease of 0.5% against CY'20.

Sales, production up m-o-m in Dec'21
In Dec'21, heavy plate sales by POSCO, Hyundai Steel and Dongkuk Steel, aggregated to 0.74 mn t, up 3.5% against Nov'21 but down 1.2% against Dec'20. Domestic sales accounted for 0.60 mn t (up 4.7% m-o-m and 4% y-o-y) while export volumes stood at 0.14 mn t (up 1.4% m-o-m and 18.4% y-o-y).

Meanwhile, production volumes were recorded at 0.78 mn t in the last month of CY'21, an increase of 3.6% m-o-m and 0.5% y-o-y.

The m-o-m increase in sales and production in Dec'21 was because of improved demand of heavy plates from the shipbuilding sector and restocking ahead of the renovation of POSCO's Gwangyang No. 4 blast furnace.

Outlook
Improvement in demand from the shipbuilding and non-shipbuilding sectors shall result in a rise in production and sales of heavy plates in CY'22. Industry insiders expect demand of heavy plates to touch 6 mn t levels this year.

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