SEOUL: South Korea’s imports of steel jumped nearly 14 percent in August from a year earlier on strong demand from the construction sector, industry data showed Friday.
According to the data by the Korea Iron & Steel Association, South Korea imported 1.99 million tons of steel last month, up 13.8 percent from a year earlier. The growth rate was the highest for this year.
Steel imports continued to expand for the second straight month on-year following a 2.3 percent rise in July. Compared with July as well, their imports grew 1.2 percent.
Imports from China accounted for 65 percent of the total with 1.29 million tons coming from the country. Japanese goods took up 27.9 percent with 554,000 tons imported.
Imports of hot-rolled steel sheets rose 14.1 percent on-year, while H-steel imports dropped 25.1 percent over the same period, affected by the Seoul government’s decision in late July to impose anti-dumping duties on Chinese products.
