Sales by seven major South Korean producers of special steel bars, including SeAH Besteel and POSCO Specialty Steel and Hyundai Steel, reached 1,281,649 mt in the first half of the current year, up 1.7 percent from the same period last year.
The South Korean producers' domestic sales of special steel bars, which accounted for 90 percent of their total sales, declined by 4.3 percent in the first half of the year, while their exports of the products increased by 20 percent, both year on year. The special steel sales of the producers to end-users and distributors in the domestic market in the given period dropped by 2.0 percent and 6.7 percent respectively year on year.
Of the overall special steel bar sales in the period, SeAH Besteel's sales accounted for 66.7 percent, Hyundai Steel accounted for 12 percent, POSCO Specialty Steel contributed 7.5 percent, Dongil Steel accounted for 6.6 percent, Jinyang Special Steel's share made up 4.5 percent, Dongil Steel accounted for 1.7 percent and Gwangjin Steel contributed one percent.