South Korea: Steelmakers' scrap stocks still stable despite price reductions

One of the leading scrap-buying countries in the world, South Korea's major steelmakers had 1.014 million tonnes (mnt) of scrap in hand as on 21 November, 2022, an increase of 12,000 t from the previous week, as per a SteelDaily report.

Similarly, the central region's steelmakers had 599,000 t of inventory, an increase of 19,000 t over the previous week.

The southern region's steelmaker reported 415,000 t, a decrease of 7,000 t over the previous week. The central region's steel producers reduced prices by KRW 50,000/t in only one week, while the southern region's steel producers slashed prices by KRW 60,000/t.

Steelmaker Updates:

• POSCO: POSCO alone witnessed a minor fall in inventories, while the majority of steelmakers recorded an increase of less than 5,000 tonnes.
  
  
• Hyundai: The stock holdings for Hyundai Steel are unchanged from last week.
  
  
• Daehan, YK & Dongkuk: Sales rose by 6% for Daehan Steel, 3% for YK Steel, and 6% for Dongkuk Steel.
  
  
• Hwan Steel: Compared to other steelmakers, Hwan Steel and Korea Iron & Steel showed substantially greater rates of inventory increase, although the actual quantity of inventory growth is not large.
  
  

The conclusion is that although daily scrap warehousing is somewhat declining, it is still greater than typical.

Possibilities: It is conceivable to predict that the price will decrease, or even if it does not decrease anymore, it will be difficult to increase for the foreseeable future.

It takes some time for steelmakers' stocks to get to the point where they"need to raise prices again." Eventually, inventories start to diminish. The typical forecast that there will be one or two price reductions in the future is ultimately accurate.

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