South Korean steel scrap imports continue revival amid higher steel output

July imports of steel scrap to South Korea increased both on a month-on-month and year-on-year basis following another strong month in June, according to data from the Korea International Trade Association.

Steel scrap imports were 462,729 tonnes in July, up 11.9% month on month from June’s 413,567 tonnes and up by 49% year on year from 310,620 tonnes in July 2020.

But a comparatively sluggish start to the year means that over the first seven months of 2021, South Korean scrap imports were still down by 5.5% from the corresponding period in 2002 at 2.57 million tonnes.

The rise in imports in recent months is in line with rising steel production in the country, with South Korea’s steel output in June up 17.3% year on year to 6.0 million tonnes, according to the World Steel Association.

Stronger demand for construction products in the country in the May-July period due to the ramp-up of several building projects led to higher steel and scrap prices, a South Korean mill source told Fastmarkets in July, but demand for scrap has waned in the last few weeks amid a rise in Covid-19 cases in the country. 

Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20), deep-sea origin, import, cfr South Korea was $480-490 per tonne cfr on Friday, down $5-10 from $490-495 per tonne one week before.

Korean blast furnace (BF) mills have been particularly active in importing higher grades of Japanese scrap such as heavy scrap (HS) and Shindachi busheling in recent months, with one major mill in the country telling suppliers that ambitious carbon-neutral targets have raised their scrap intake volumes.

Demand for higher-grade materials from BFs in Korea and Japan has led to a huge premium of ¥17,000-18,000 ($155-165) per tonne for Shindachi busheling over H2 scrap in the fob Japan market over recent weeks.

Imports from Japan were 284,192 tonnes in July 2021, down 6.4% month on month from June’s 303,750 tonnes, but up 42.0% from 200,180 tonnes in July 2020.

The rise in scrap demand has also seen South Korea looking to the United States in recent months, targeting supplies of steel scrap from the US West Coast.

South Korea imported 79,627 tonnes of US-origin scrap in July, more than double the 38,633 tonnes tonnes imported in June and up sharply from just 11,245 tonnes in July 2020.

What to read next
US trade policy discussion dominated conversations at the Recycled Materials Association (ReMA) annual conference in San Diego on May 12-15, with speakers in focused trade panels and commodity spotlights dissecting the decisions and potential actions of the Trump administration.
Discover how big oil is fuelling change in the global electric vehicle (EV) market with the latest episode of Fast Forward podcast
Fastmarkets invited feedback from the industry on the pricing methodology for Asia recovered paper and Asia packaging paper and board, via an open consultation process between April 17 and May 18, 2025. This consultation was done as part of our published annual methodology review process.
The publication of Fastmarkets’ molybdenum drummed molybdic oxide – in-whs Busan, MB-FEO-0004, and in-whs Rotterdam, MB-FEO-0003 – and ferro-molybdenum 65% Mo min, in-whs Rotterdam, MB-FEO-0001, price assessments were delayed because of slow data processing on Friday May 23. Fastmarkets’ pricing database has been updated. The publication of these prices was delayed for 12 minutes. The […]
Investors in the US corn and wheat markets amassed shorts in the week to Tuesday May 13, moving corn from a net long to a net short for the first time since October, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showed late on Friday May 16.
This price assessment aims to enhance transparency in the Indonesian coke market. Fastmarkets has observed a significant volume of Indonesian coke entering the global market in recent months, establishing Indonesia as a key exporter of coke worldwide since 2023. In the first seven months of 2024, Poland, China and Indonesia were the top three coke exporters globally.  […]