Steel giant POSCO has scheduled repairs and maintenance plans at its hot-rolled mills in Pohang and Gwangyang in mid-April-early May, 2022, respectively. This, in turn, will result in a supply crunch of hot rolled (HR) products in the market.
Major repairs are scheduled to take place from next week till early May at POSCO’s Pohang Works’ second HR plant and Gwangyang Works’ third HR plant. The current annual steel-making capacity of both the plants is around 5.1 mnt each and the production loss from each plant during the period is estimated to be around 200,000 t.
POSCO and Hyundai Steel saw a significant decline in outer plate production in February, 2022. Production volumes stood at 730,000 t and are likely to decline further in April.
During Q1CY22, production volumes aggregated to 2.63 mnt, down 4.4% in contrast with the corresponding period last year.
Notably, POSCO is expected to actively supply in the domestic market through stock-piling of production and along with reducing exports before beginning maintenance. However, market participants feel some major repairs are unavoidable.
Meanwhile, imports too, have been sluggish due to higher Chinese steel prices coupled with an unclear export policy.
Note: This article has been published in accordance with an article exchange agreement between SteelDaily and SteelMint.
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