By October, South Korea’s water-logged steelmakers had managed to recover some of crude steel production they had lost through the arrival of super typhoon Hinnamnor in early September, but the country’s ongoing fight against COVID-19 continued to keep the on-year total lower, the new data from Korea Iron & Steel Association (KOSA) showed.
During October, total crude steel output reached 5.1 million tonnes, which was up by a large 11.6% from September but lower by a similarly large 11.1% from the October 2021 result, the data showed.
Within the total, ordinary crude steel produced by the basic oxygen furnace route (BOF) – exclusively POSCO and Hyundai Steel – reached 3.4 million tonnes, higher by 4% from the month before but down by 9.3% from October last year.
Adding the small proportion of special steel made by BOF makers takes that sector’s total to 3.5 million tonnes, higher by 4.3% on month but lower by 10.9% on year.
In early September, typhoon Hinnamnor deluged POSCO’s Pohang works on Korea’s southeast coast, forcing the company to halt all operations at the works, as Mysteel Global reported.
POSCO managed to bring the plant’s three blast furnaces – which had been idled – back online within about a week, but the ramp-up was slowed by inspections of other damaged equipment and repairs.
By October, however, as the KOSA data showed, POSCO had those furnaces back in reasonable shape and had lifted output at its Gwangyang works, west of Pohang that had been unaffected by the typhoon. Pohang produced some 16.9 million tonnes of finished steel last year, as reported.
Meanwhile, though some mini-mills located in Korea’s southeast corner suffered some damage and disruptions due to the typhoon, the KOSA data showed that carbon steel electric-arc-furnace (EAF) makers suffered barely a hiccup.
During October, mini-mill production soared by 35.2% from September and by 3% on year to 1.3 million tonnes, though contributing to the on-month jump would have been mills firing up facilities after summer maintenance stoppages in the previous month.
On the other hand, the country’s specialty steelmakers (using EAFs) fared less well, with their output in October rising by 16.3% from September to 329,964 tonnes, though this was down by a huge 43.1% from October last year.
The speciality makers continued to be impacted by the struggles of the country’s automotive industry due to parts shortages and the blow that soaring COVID cases had had on the domestic economy.
Consequently, Korean’s total EAF-based steel output during October was higher by 30.9% from September at 1.7 million tonnes but lower by 11.4% on year.
The October results took South Korea’s January-October crude steel output to 55.7 million tonnes, down 5% from the same period in 2021, the KOSA data showed.
Within this, BOF production accounted for 38.1 million tonnes, off 4.3% from the first 10 months of last year, and EAF 17.6 million tonnes, lower by 6.5%.
Written by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
Leave a Reply