South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) has announced a set of strategic measures aimed at reinforcing the domestic steel industry. In light of mounting global overcapacity, tariff pressures, and rising energy costs, these policies seek to safeguard South Korea’s competitive edge in steel production, strengthening its response system to the EU’s new import regulations which cut tariff-free quotas for steel products and double the tariff to 50 percent.
The measures include targeted financial support for steelmakers, incentives for transition to low-carbon production, and reforms in steel import regulations to protect local manufacturers from unfair trade practices.
In order to resolve the difficulties faced by steel exporting companies, MOTIE plans to continuously explore various measures, such as establishing a “Steel Export Supply Chain Strengthening Guarantee Product” and a “Secondary Conservation Project for Steel, Aluminum, Copper, and Derivatives Companies”.
In addition, in October, the relevant ministries will jointly establish a “Steel Industry Advancement Plan” that includes:
- establishing product-specific response directions and developing support measures to respond to global oversupply,
- strengthening responses to unfair imports through systems such as antidumping,
- establishing standards for low-carbon steel materials and providing incentives,
- expanding support for low-carbon and high-value-added conversion investments in the steel industry such as hydrogen reduction ironmaking and special carbon steel,
- strengthening safety management and expanding win-win cooperation between the steel upstream and downstream processes, and between the demand and raw material industries.
