South Korea: POSCO, Hyundai Steel plates production, sales drop y-o-y

Two major Korean steel producers, POSCO and Hyundai Steel saw their domestic production and sales of hot-rolled exterior plates drop by more than 7% compared to the corresponding period last year, as per a SteelDaily report.

Sales
In Jan-Nov'21, both companies' sales volumes of exterior plates fell 8.3% to 10.455 million tonnes (mn t). Out of which, domestic sales accounted for 7.045 mn t, an increase of 5.1% y-o-y, while export sales dropped 27.5% to 3.41 mn t, leading to a decline in overall sales. Seeing an increase in domestic demand and decline in exports, mills reduced overseas sales in order to fulfill domestic requirements.

In Nov'21, sales stood at 0.995 mn t, up 9.3% against Oct'21. However, on an annualised basis, the same saw a sharp decline of 12.3% against Nov'20.

Production
Plates production by both the leading steel mills stood at 1.015 mn t in Nov'21, up 11.5% on a monthly basis but a drop of 7.1% against the same month in the previous year.

Production volumes were stagnant as equipment repairs continued till November, while sales also slumped due to higher prices and recovering demand from downstream industries. Furthermore, the demand is likely to remain good for the rest of the year.