Posted on 08 Sep 2022
South Korean steelmaker Posco is offering slab into the global market because of flood damage to its Pohang rolling mills.
In a message to potential buyers, the company's trading arm said it would be offering just prime quality slab — it is scrapping its stocked material to avoid "market disturbance" — and preferred large shipments of 40-50,000t on a first-come, first-served basis.
Market sources suggest the mill had a huge 800,000t of slab on the ground when the flooding occurred, although this was not confirmed. In a note sent to Argus, the company said its blast furnaces and core facilities have not been damaged by the flooding following cyclone Hinnamnor, and operations are expected to normalise when electricity supply is restored.
In its customer note the mill said the quantity of slab available was not defined yet as it was still assessing the damage to its facilities. There is an expectation its hot rolling could be impacted for three months or more. Some of the slab produced at Pohang will be sent to the company's Gwangyang Works for rolling.
It asked customers to submit their tonnage, grade, quantity, shipment month and target price.
Sources suggested the mill received substantial inquiries from buyers, including European blast furnace-based producers struggling with high energy costs.
Posco slab was offered into Turkey at $520/t cfr, but this was deemed too high for buyers.
Posco is the sixth-largest steelmaker in the world, producing about 43mn t last year, and the Pohang flooding has caused other producers to increase their offers anywhere from $20-50/t, according to traders and buyers.
Source:Argus Media
