South Korea: Steelmakers' ferrous scrap inventories increase w-o-w

The declining trend of ferrous scrap inventories at South Korea's steel mills seems to have been reversed. This week, scrap holdings of the eight steelmakers totalled 812,000 tonnes (t), an increase of 13,000 t or 3% from the previous week.

As inventory increased, prices of the same rose 7.4% compared to last year. It seems that the steel mills' inventory has risen to a sufficient level.

Dongkuk Steel's maintenance schedule and increased import volumes led to overall inventory growth. In fact, POSCO even announced a price increase on 14 February 2023 followed by Korea Steel lowering the purchase prices. The mills' peak demand season is in spring, which is round the corner.

Region-wise inventory

• Seoul metropolitan: The metropolitan area of Seoul has seen steel mills' inventories rising significantly. In the metropolitan area, the total sum of steelmakers' inventories increased by over 5% from the previous week to 445,000 t.
  
  
• Southern region: On the other hand, the southern region's steelmakers' inventory remained stable w-o-w. In the southern region, steelmakers held 367,000 t of scrap altogether, which was the same as in the week before. In the meantime, the southern region's four steelmakers increased their daily warehousing volume to 13,000 t.
  
  

Company-wise inventory status

• Dongkuk Steel: Dongkuk Steel's inventory growth is the largest. There is no demand for scrap due to the maintenance schedule at the Pohang plant, and inventory seems to have accumulated due to recent imports. Dongkuk Steel's inventory increased by 21.5% compared to the previous week.
  
  
• Hyundai Steel & POSCO: Hyundai Steel's inventory decreased slightly in Incheon and Pohang w-o-w as inventory increased slightly in Dangjin. Korea Steel and POSCO maintained the same inventory level as last week.
  
  
• Hwan Steel: Hwan Steel's inventory increased noticeably by 30% from the previous week.
  
  
• Daehan & YK Steel: However, inventories at Daehan Steel and YK Steel rose 10% and 25%, respectively.
  
  

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