Imports of heavy plates into South Korea have witnessed a decline of 19.9% in the first 10 months of CY’21 (Jan-Oct’21) at 836,781 tonnes (t) against the similar period of CY’20. The disruptions going on in China due to tightening production cuts have impacted the trade volumes this year.
However, in Oct’21, the scenario has somewhat changed with increased imports from Japan at 125,035 t, up by 19.2% y-o-y. This was majorly driven by the higher exports amid stagnation in local demand in Japan. Moreover, total imports in Oct’21 summed up to 171,352 t, witnessing a surge of 85.1% y-o-y and 79.2% on a monthly basis, as per the SteelDaily report.
It is expected that the import volumes will continue to remain impacted by the declining Chinese export offers and a likely increase in the domestic market supplies in the near term. Furthermore, the industry participants opine that the demand from the shipbuilding industry will continue to rise in the succeeding year as well.
Exports:
South Korean heavy plate exports followed a similar trend, declining by 25.5% y-o-y to 1,087,671 t in Jan-Oct’21. On similar lines, in Oct’21, the export volumes witnessed a decline of 26.5% y-o-y, and 6.8% against Sept’21 at 101,162 t.
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