South Korea: Production, sales of exterior plates drop y-o-y in Feb

Two major South Korean mills, POSCO and Hyundai Steel, reported a drop in production and sales of hot-rolled (HR) exterior plates in Feb'22 in comparison to the same period last year.

HR exterior plates production totalled 730,000 tonnes (t) in Feb'22, registering a decline of 22.8% m-o-m and 19.3% y-o-y. The decline in crude steel production is majorly because of the repair and renovation plans of POSCO's Gwangyang Works No.4.

Jan-Feb plates sales down

Total plate sales aggregated to 1.7 million tonnes (mnt) in Jan-Feb'22, down 12.6% against Jan-Feb'21. Out of total sales, domestic accounted for 1.18 mnt while exports were at 520,000 t, down 6.3% and 24.1% y-o-y respectively in Jan-Feb'22.

Production too registered a decline of 12.5% y-o-y to 1.68 mnt in Jan-Feb'22.

Total hot-rolled production, sales

POSCO and Hyundai Steel produced 770,000 t of HR products in Feb'22, lowest since CY'15. While sales in the domestic market stood at 545,000 t - down 14% m-o-m and 13.5% y-o-y.

Soaring costs of raw materials like iron ore and coal, decrease in domestic production, drop in Chinese imports and higher global steel prices have altogether raised concerns in the minds of market participants.

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