South Korea's total exports of steel pipes in the January-May period this year reached 1,145,838 mt, up 23.1 percent from the same period last year, according to the Korea Iron and Steel Association (KOSA). This is equivalent to 47.5 percent of the annual record export volume of 2,400,579 mt registered in 2011.
Such a surge in South Korea's exports of steel pipes in the first five months of the year was led by brisk overseas sales of pipes for use in the energy sector, which rose 35.3 percent year on year to 765,291 mt, accounting for 66.8 percent of total overseas sales of steel pipes in the given period. In particular, exports of line pipes rose by 27.7 percent to 444,681 mt, with exports of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) soaring by 47.5 percent to 320,610 mt, both year on year.
In May, however, exports of steel pipes failed to rise on month-on-month basis. Compared with April, May exports of steel pipes from South Korea declined by 4.1 percent to 240,320 mt. In particular, combined exports of line pipes and OCTG decreased by 9.4 percent to 144,208 mt in May as compared with April.
In January-May, the largest destination for outbound shipments of South Korean-made steel pipes was the US which took 688,378 mt, accounting for 59.5 percent of South Korea's entire steel pipe exports in the first five months. In May alone, South Korea exported 140,149 mt of steel pipes to the US, which accounted for 58.3 percent of the total export volume.
Meanwhile, South Korea's total imports of steel pipes reached 318,588 mt in the same period, up 4.4 percent year on yea. In May alone, inbound shipments of steel pipes edged up by only 1.5 percent month on month to 72,210 mt. The largest overseas supplier of steel pipes for South Korea in the January-May period was China, from which South Korea purchased 81,174 mt, including 41,364 mt imported in May.