South Korean rebar market facing lack of inventories
According to a data released, the totaling sales volume of rebar is now around 330,000 tons, and if the supply is running well the volume could reach to 820,000 tons in the end of March. However, the totaling inventories of rebar were only 190,000 tons now from six main factories so they should find out some strategy to solve the problem of the shortage.
It was thought the tightening inventories in rebar were related to the reduction of raw materials inventories. According to statistics, the totaling inventories of scrap were around 880,000 tons from some factories such as YK Steel, Hwanyoung Steel, KISCO, etc. at the same time, and Japan’s scrap price was continuously rising so the factories owners were buying less scrap, which caused the inventories of rebar were not enough.
In the condition that the lack of materials and the price kept rising, the cheaper rebar from China started to be sold into South Korean market. Although it was a good news to the buyer, the competitive prices of rebar were a threat to the local steel factories.
