Hyundai Steel warns Chinese peers about low-cost supply

Hyundai Steel Co. CI

South Korea’s Hyundai Steel Co. has formally notified China of the domestic damages triggered by the influx of low-priced Chinese steel. The notification came ahead of the company’s anti-dumping petition with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy against Chinese thick plates in July.

According to multiple sources from the steel industry on Sunday, Hyundai Steel, attending an annual dialogue between Korean and Chinese steelmakers in China, brought up the impacts of a surge in the imports of China’s low-priced thick plates on Korea’s steel industry.

Thick steel plates are flat products that have a relatively high thickness. They are crucial in constructing ships, such as container vessels and oil tankers.

During the conference, Hyundai Steel noted that China’s thick plate exports to Korea had surged nearly 80 percent over the past three years, rising from 720,000 tons in 2020 to 1.3 million tons in 2023.

The company also added that Korea‘s share of Chinese thick plate imports had grown from 10 percent in 2020 to 17 percent in 2023. It urged China to recognize the challenges faced by the Korean steel industry in the wake of the influx and to consider taking corrective measures.

In July, Hyundai Steel formally requested the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy to review its anti-dumping complaint.