Posted on 28 Sep 2022
South Korean steel producer Posco says that the economic slowdown has hit the stainless market, and it will cut output by 100,000 tonnes from September to the end of the year.
Flooding from the recent typhoon submerged its Pohang plant, and its stainless steel production lines could not resume full normal production until the end of December. However, because stainless steel products have strong corrosion resistance, and most of the remaining work in process and product inventory can be used. This means that there will be no supply disruptions, nor price surges in the market, the steelmaker tells Kallanish.
Domestic customer demand is estimated to be about 326,000t until the end of the year, and the market inventory is around 324,000t, with Posco's inventory at 86,000t, the steel mill's official information shows. At the same time, Posco says it can guarantee product supply of 104,000t by alternative means.
In order to stabilize the domestic market supply, Posco plans to divert export materials to domestic consumption as much as possible, transferring slabs produced at Pohang plant to the Gwangyang plant or Posco Zhangjiagang Steel in China to produce hot-rolled products, and producing cold-rolled products in Thailand at Posco-Thainox.
Posco also says it plans to cooperate with domestic and overseas stainless steelmakers to supply some products for which there may be an interruption in supply. It has decided to cooperate with domestic steel companies to supply stainless steel sheets, and is working on stainless steel production for automotive exhaust systems through collaboration with overseas producers.
Source:Kallanish
