Home appliance producers in South Korea have called on cold rolled (CR) steel producers to lower their prices. Samsung Electronics Co. has asked domestic steel producers such as POSCO to reduce its prices of CR products by KRW 100,000/mt ($90/mt), while LG Electronics Co. has asked for a decrease of KRW 50,000/mt ($45/mt).
However, the steel producers have stated that they are unable to accept such a big decrease, citing tight profit margins and even losses. However, the CR producers cannot entirely ignore the requests of the home appliance manufacturers as they are important customers. Summing up, the South Korean CR producers may reduce their prices by a certain margin, but not by as much as requested by the home appliance makers.