SEOUL: South Korea’s imports of iron and steel products from China increased 34.9 percent year-on-year to 13.4 million tonnes last year. The amount is the largest since 2008, when 14.31 million tonnes were imported from China.
The association attributed the spike to an oversupply of steel production in China that couldn’t find demand at home and ended up flowing into the Korean market.
“The sense of crisis among local steelmakers is growing as low-priced Chinese products are flooding the market,” an association official said.
South Korea’s total iron and steel imports came to 22.74 million tons last year, up 17.3 percent from a year earlier, the data showed. Imports from Japan contracted 5.3 percent on-year to 7.31 million tons.
