South Korea’s domestic hot-rolled (HR) steel sales in Aug’21 saw a significant fall compared to the same month last year, as per SteelDaily.
Production of HR steel in Aug’21 declined slightly compared to the same month last year. According to the Korea Steel Association, domestic production of ordinary hot-rolled steel strips in August were recorded at 3,075,277 tonnes, down by a nominal 1% against Aug’20. However, on a monthly basis, the same dropped by 1.7% against Jul’21.
Sales also declined y-o-y. Total sales volumes for the month (Aug’21) was recorded at 1.19 mn t, a decrease of 7.7% from the previous month and a sharp decrease of 17.2% from the same month of the previous year.
Out of the total sales volume, domestic accounted for 823,687 t, decreasing 4.8% m-o-m, but remaining almost stable y-o-y. Exports stood at 375,736 t, down 13.3% m-o-m and 40.2% y-o-y which seem to have led the decline in overall sales.
Cumulative production in Jan-Aug’21 was at 24.12 mn t, a 7% m-o-m increase. However, sales were at 10.40 mn t, largely stable compared to the same period last year. Domestic sales increased by 5.8% y-o-y to 6.54 mn t while exports fell by 7.6% y-o-y to 387,501 t.
Market sources pointed out that the growth in sales of domestic hot rolled products seems to have been modest compared to production growth due to increased supply of domestic products and a sharp decline in exports.
The source said that it is highly likely that the inflow of Chinese products will decrease further after November, and he feared that it would be difficult to ease the HR supply for the time being.
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