SEOUL: The recent trade statistics published by the Korean Customs Department indicate considerable year-on-year rise in scrap import volumes by the country during the month of October this year. However, the imports declined when matched with the previous month. The scrap imports by South Korea had registered marginal decline during the month prior to this. During October, Korea imported 464,000 tons of scrap, 20% higher when compared with the imports during the same month a year before. The country’s scrap imports had totaled 387,000 tons in October last year. When compared with the imports of 513,000 tons during September this year, the imports during Oct ’16 reported 9.8% decline.
The largest exporter of scrap to Korea during the month was Japan. The imports from Japan totaled 240,000 tons, accounting for nearly 52% of the total imports by Korea during the month. The imports from Japan surged higher by 24.1% when compared with the same month a year before. Japan’s scrap exports to South Korea had totaled 193,000 tons in October 2015. The second largest exporter of scrap to Korea was the US. The imports from the US surged higher significantly by 48% year-on-year to total 99,000 tons.
South Korea had imported 513,464 tons of scrap steel during the month of September this year. The imports were down by 5.4% when matched with the previous month. The country had imported 542,587 tons of scrap steel during August 2016. When compared with the year before, the September ’16 imports were down sharply by 14.2%. The country’s ferrous scrap imports had totaled 600,543 tons during September last year.
The largest exporter of ferrous scrap to South Korea during the month was Japan. The imports from Japan totaled 279,469 tons, accounting for more than 54%. The imports from the country witnessed 31.3% rise from September last year. Also, the imports from Japan increased significantly by nearly 10% when matched with the imports of 255,063 tons during prior month. Russia was the second largest exporter during the month, with 98,041 tons. The ferrous scrap imports from Russia surged higher by 16.6% over the previous year. The other key exporters of ferrous scrap to South Korea during the month were the USA (58,324 tons), Australia (33,923 tons), Puerto Rico (6,533 tons), Philippines (5,263 tons) and Costa Rica (5,125 tons).
Meantime, analysts forecast mild recovery to South Korea’s steel industry. The easing of oversupply concerns from China will arrest global downturn, they noted. However, recovery in the sector will be badly impacted by falling demand. According to Korea Economic Research Institute, the country’s economy is expected to grow marginally by 2.1% in 2017, mainly on account of growing uncertainty in global economy and lack of additional stimulus measures from the government. The latest report by the state-run Korea Industrial Economics & Trade (KIET) states that Korean overall imports are likely to rise by 3.6% to $415 billion in 2017.
