Imports of stainless steel plate materials into South Korea stood at 55,337 tonnes, up 48.2% compared to the same month of the previous year, and 133.8% compared to the previous month.
Imports of stainless steel plate materials declined for four consecutive months since reaching an all-time high in July 2021 but increased again in March after showing a decline for two straight months.
Large consignments of imports in March, 2022 experienced delays in customs clearance and were affected by the slow price increase last month.
The impact of the delay in customs clearance due to the Lunar New Year holidays in February benefited importers.
HRC, CRC volumes
Among the total import volumes, stainless steel hot rolled coils (HRCs) accounted for 25,914 t, up 163.6% m-o-m and by 79.5% y-o-y.
Imports of cold rolled coil (CRC) products were at 29,423 t, up 112.7% m-o-m and 28.5% y-o-y respectively.
Country-wise break-up
The imports of hot rolled products in March, 2022 were 3,614 t from Japan, 8,730 t from China, 11,532 t from Indonesia, and 953 t from Taiwan.
Cold rolled imports in March were at 18,196 t from China, 6,936 t from Indonesia, and 2,186 t from Taiwan.
Price trend
The 3-month average contract price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) stood at $36,766/t in March, 2022, a spike of 55% as against $23,735/t in February, 2022.
Notably, on a yearly basis, the price showed a spike of 122.74% from $16,506/t in March, 2021.
The average monthly stocks of nickel were recorded at 74,761 t in March, 2022 as compared to 84,493 t in the previous month, down 11.52% m-o-m. Y-o-y too stocks witnessed a 71.24% decrease as against 259,988 t in March, 2021.
This article has been published under an exchange agreement between SteelDaily and SteelMint.
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