Korean tinplate prices to rise

Factiva: "Korea’s Dongbu Steel has decided to lift domestic prices of its tinplate and tin-free steel by KRW 70,000/tonne ($61/t) from 15 March. This follows Posco’s decision to raise its blackplate prices by KRW 50,000/t ($43/t) to KRW 900,000/t ($789/t) from 4 March. Posco is Korea’s only blackplate supplier.

Dongbu will not reveal its new list prices but Steel Business Briefing learns from market sources that the Seoul-based sheet producer’s new base price for tinplate (0.3mm thick) will be around KRW 1.3m/t ($1,140/t).

Korea’s other major tinplate maker, TCC Steel, based in Pohang near Busan, is still deciding when it might raise prices and by how much. A decision will be made within this month, a company source says. TCC is the former Dongyang Tinplate."

Though Posco’s prices of blackplate have increased, the mill’s deliveries to domestic consumers including Dongbu and TCC are likely to remain insufficient. “Supplies of both blackplate and tinplate were tight through almost all of last year,” a source from a major tinplate mill tells SBB. He adds this was because a shortage of hot coils last year led Posco to reduce supplies of blackplate and not because of strong tinplate demand among Korean end-users.

Last year, Posco produced only 649,996 t of blackplate, down by 14% compared with 754,840 t from a year earlier, according to Korea Iron & Steel Association. As a result, Korea’s total output of tinplate including TFS during the same period declined by 3% to 608,152 t year-on-year.