Domestic import of slabs increased more than 10 percent last year, owing to Japan’s export-driven strategy and surges from Brazil’s CSP mill. According to the Kore Iron and Steel Association, the 2019 ordinary slab imports were 1,53,984 tons, up 14.3 percent or about 200,000 tons from 2018 of 1,346,717 tons. By source, Japanese slabs accounted for the largest quantity of 562,000 tons around, up 4.4 percent on-year, as the Japanese mills sought to undercut the export prices of semif0nished as well as finished steel mill products last year. Japan’s mills undercut their export prices by large as far as the shipment headed for Korea although the raw material prices hiked last year, the industry people pointed out. Indeed, Japanese slab unit price of import into Korea averaged $492 per ton last year, but this was about $50 per ton lower than 2018 or down 9 percent from $541 per ton.
Brazil-origin slabs posted a total of 469,435 tons, the second largest of the total import. The quantities are arrived seemingly almost from CSP Works which was established by a joint venture among POSCO, Dongkuk Steel and Vale. Brazil’s CSP Works began operation from 2016 enabling to produce 3.0 million tpy slabs. Indonesia-source slabs were imported into the domestic market in a total of 355,630 tons, down 17.9 percent on-year. The position set back as a result to the third of the total import. The decrease seems due to decline of offerings from POSCO-Krakatau Works. Slabs imported from PTKP is known to be used for the production of grades offered to distributors. Russian slabs also surged to 80,000 tons around with the average import price of $482 per ton last year.
Source : Steel&Metal News
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