South Korea's steel imports declined in February

Author: Paul Ploumis
12 Mar 2015 Last updated at 02:45:52 GMT
SEOUL (Scrap Monster): According to monthly steel statistics released by the Korea Iron and Steel Association (KOSA), the country’s steel imports dropped during the month of February this year. The drop in imports was mainly on account of decreased steel imports from China.

As per KOSA, the South Korean steel imports during February this year totaled 1.6 million tons, down 7% when compared with the steel imports of 1.72 million tons during the same month in 2014.

China continued to be the largest exporter of steel to the country during Feb ’15. However, the imports declined sharply over the year. The imports from China totaled 905,000 tons, accounting for almost 56% of the total steel imports by Korea during the month. However, the imports dropped sharply by 12% when compared with a year ago. The Korean steel imports from China had totaled 1.03 million tons during Feb ’14. In second place was Japan with total imports of 569,000 tons. The imports from Japan rose 5% during the month.

The country’s imports of heavy plates plunged 23% during the month. The imports of hot rolled coils too fell sharply by 18% year-on-year. The average import price of carbon steel hot rolled coils declined almost 13% year on year from $607 per ton during Feb ’14 to $529 per ton during February this year.