South Korea: Steelmakers’ ferrous scrap inventory continues its downtrend w-o-w

South Korean steelmakers’ scrap inventory continues to decline again this week. The major steelmakers had 774,000 tonnes (t) of scrap stock which was lower by 11% w-o-w, as per a SteelDaily report.

The change in inventory by nearly 100,000 t in a week is the third largest change this year. It seems that the decline in inventory is speeding up.

Due to a sharp decline in inventory, the absolute amount of stock with steelmakers is low. Their inventory is 24.6% lower compared to the same week last year.

Region-wise inventory –

• Southern region: Steelmakers in the southern region are running out of stock this week too. Scrap stocks with steelmakers of this region totalled 286,000 t, down 15% from the previous week.
  As steelmakers’ inventory is rapidly decreasing, it is giving an indication of a price increase in the southern region.

As of 20 December, all steelmakers in the Busan-Gyeongnam region raised their scrap purchase prices by KRW 20,000/t, following the hike by Dongkuk Steel and Hyundai Steel.

• Central region: Central region-based steelmakers’ inventory decreased by 9% w-o-w. Hyundai Steel’s total inventory decreased by 10.3%. Among steelmakers in the central region, Hwan Steel showed the largest inventory reduction.

Company-wise inventory-

• Hyundai Steel and POSCO: A significant decrease in inventory at Hyundai Steel’s Pohang plant contributed to the decline in inventory in the southern region.
  POSCO showed 11% and Hyundai Steel’s Pohang plant showed 20% decline in scrap inventory. Hyundai Steel’s Incheon plant showed a decline of 11% in inventory, but the same at its Dangjin works decreased by 5.5%.

• Hwan Steel: At Hwan Steel, inventory decreased by 27%. This is the biggest drop in inventory this week.

Ferrous scrap imports by major steelmakers-

During this week, major ports in South Korea reportedly received a total of 128,341 t of ferrous scrap. The improvement was 8,231 t or 7% from the previous week.

• Dongkuk Steel: Dongkuk Steel’s scrap imports were the highest. The company brought in 31,900 t to Incheon, 6,000 t to Pohang, and 26,150 t to Dangjin.

• Hyundai Steel: Hyundai Steel returned to 10,000 t of imports in four weeks. Hyundai Steel brought in 2,000 t to Incheon, 9,091 t to Dangjin, and 7,000 t to Pohang and reported a total of 18,091 t.
• SeAH Besteel: SeAH Besteel reported imports of 30,000 t of scrap. This is a slight increase from last week’s 24,000 t. SeAH Besteel has maintained the most steady import volume this year.

Port wise-

• At Masan Port, 3,000 t of scrap was imported by Korea Steel.
• At Busan Port, Daehan Steel brought in 11,200 t of scrap.

Grade wise: Shindachi and shredded grade material had a high proportion in total scrap imports this week. Shredded was 22,091 t, accounting for 17.2% of total imports, while shindachi was 19,000 t, accounting for 14.8%. In addition, 4,000 t of HS and 5,000 t of H2 were imported.

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