Data released by South
Korea Iron & Steel Association (KISA) show that the country's domestic steel demand is expected to increase 1.5 percent year on year to 47.27 million metric tons in 2006 due to the strong demand from automobile and
shipbuilding industries.
However, the projected figure is lower than KISA's earlier forecast of 47.38 million metric tons.
Steel product exports is projected to increase 1.1 percent year on year to 16.4 million metric tons this year, lower than the earlier expectation of 2 percent rise.
KISA also indicated that steel
production is expected to amount 55.4 million metric tons, up 1.6 percent from a year earlier.
South
Korea will produce an estimated 47.04 million metric tons of crude steel in 2006, down from 47.78 million metric tons in 2005. If the decline in crude steel
production comes true, it will be the first decline since 1998.