South Korea: New ferrous scrap arrivals drop 10% w-o-w

This week, the influx of new ferrous scrap into South Korea dropped by 10% to 26,500 tonnes (t) from 29,600 t a week ago. The ferrous scrap imports have remained consistently below 30,000 t for two consecutive weeks.

Moreover, since June, the influx of new iron scrap have not exceeded 100,000 t, except for the four weeks in August when a significant mother ship was observed entering the port. This persistent decline in steel scrap imports is of significant concern.

Company-wise scrap arrivals

Hyundai Steel: Hyundai Steel's new iron scrap arrivals fell 54% w-o-w to 8,500 t this week. Out of total scrap arrival, 4,000 t were sourced from Incheon and 4,500 t were sourced from Pohang. No material was bought from Dangjin port.

Dongkuk Steel: Dongkuk Steel's new iron scrap arrival were reported at 4,000 t from the Incheon port, marking the lowest figure for this year. When compared to the previous week, scrap arrivals were largely stable. However, it was only one-sixth of this year's average port arrivals.

Significantly, Hyundai Steel and Dongkuk Steel, which collectively dominate the total import volumes, have recently reported minimal arrivals. Consequently, there has been a substantial drop in the overall count of port arrival reports.

SeAH Steel: SeAH Steel's new ferrous scrap arrival was assessed at 9,000 t, rose significantly by 80% as against 5,000 t seen in the previous week. The entire volume was brought from the Gunsan port. Steel mill procured 3,000 t from the Masan port too, however, the shipper could not be verified.

POSCO: POSCO has only bought 3,000 t of new ferrous scraps at Gwangyang port this week. However, the steel mill announced a separate import of 33,000 t of HBI. This batch of HBI is being transported via a vessel departing from Labuan, Malaysia. It was noteworthy that this marked POSCO's first HBI import in approximately four months since the end of May.

Grade wise sourcing

Shindachi scrap accounted for 34% of the total with 9,000 t, while H2 constituted 17% of the total with 4,500 t.

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