The steel plate inventories of domestic steel service centers (SSCs) of South Korean steel giant POSCO have been on a downward trend since June, after previously indicating a continuous rise from January this year.
As of the end of July, the POSCO service centers' inventories of steel plates for distribution in the domestic market totaled about 80,000 mt, down 4.3 percent month on month, according to a recent survey by Korea Metal Journal. The inventory, which stood at 52,000 mt at the end of January, reached a peak of 102,900 at the end of May, and then dropped for two months in a row, to 83,600 mt at the end of June and 80,000 mt at the end of July.
Such a drop in the service centers' steel plate inventory resulted mainly from the reduced inflow of foreign products into the market. The service centers' inventory of domestic products has not shown any large change, only edging down 100 mt month on month to 63,500 mt at the end of July, while imported product inventory was 16,500 mt at the end of July, down 5.5 percent month on month.