South Korea's scrap imports decreased

South Korea's ferrous scrap imports decreased to a 26-month low in April, while sluggish steel demand continued to restrict scrap purchases.

Imports of ferrous scrap into South Korea decreased by 30.5% m-o-m and 51.8% y-o-y to 251,316 tonnes in April, customs data showed. This also marked the lowest import volume since January 2021 at 217,945 tonnes.

Japan remained the largest exporter of ferrous scrap to South Korea in April at 192,220 tonnes, accounting for around 76% of the country's total net imports. However, this figure indicates a decrease of 47% on an annual basis and 21.2% on a monthly basis. Japan exported a total of 970,482 tonnes of scrap to South Korea in January-April this year, down 20.7% y-o-y.

The US was the second largest exporter of scrap to South Korea with 20,024 tonnes in April, down 67.1% from March. In January-April period, net imports from the US amounted to 156,578 tonnes, down 11.6% y-o-y.

Scrap imports from Russia also decreased to 14,294 tonnes in April, down 65.6% yoy.