Steel buyers & sellers in Korea & Japan: Billet prices dip, Korea’s scrap shortage deepens, and mills pivot to imports. Download Report for strategy.
This week, Northeast Asian steel markets absorbed a series of compounding shifts — Chinese billet export prices broke below the $480/t floor for the first time since April, South Korea’s scrap shortage intensified into a structural crisis driving mills to import billet, and Iran formally institutionalised its control over the Strait of Hormuz, adding a permanent cost layer to global shipping. For procurement managers, these shifts demand an immediate reassessment of raw material sourcing strategies. For sales managers, they open a new and potentially enduring demand channel for semi-finished steel into one of Asia’s largest EAF markets.
This report covers the full week of May 13–20, 2026, with explicit week-on-week comparisons against May 6–13. It does not just describe what happened — it explains why it happened, what it means for your sourcing and selling decisions, and where prices are headed next.
Procurement Managers, This Report Helps You Solve:
- How to respond when Chinese HRC and billet export prices are softening but your local currency is simultaneously weakening, making landed costs rise even as FOB prices fall.
- How to evaluate imported billet as a strategic alternative to domestic scrap in Korea, where scrap purchase prices have surged for two consecutive weeks and mills are now actively seeking billet supply.
- How to prepare for the approaching June 22 deadline on Korea’s HRC anti-dumping duties, which will define the medium-term import framework for flat steel — and how to secure supply before any policy shifts.
Sales Managers, This Report Helps You Solve:
- How to capitalise on Korea’s structural shift toward imported billet — a demand channel that is not a short-term arbitrage but a fundamental response to a domestic scrap deficit that will intensify when POSCO’s 2.5 million tpy EAF commissions in June.
- How to price HRC and billet exports in a softening market without triggering a race to the bottom, and why holding the line above key thresholds is still justified by the cost structure.
- How to navigate the new shipping reality in the Strait of Hormuz — where Iran’s newly established Persian Gulf Strait Authority now requires “full coordination” for vessel transit — and how to protect your contracts from elevated war risk and freight costs.
The core value of this report:
Korea’s structural scrap deficit is driving a fundamental pivot to imported billet — a sustained demand channel that rewards suppliers who move now and penalises buyers who delay.
This report includes explicit week-on-week price and policy comparisons, so you can see exactly how the market shifted from last week’s stalled momentum to this week’s soft correction — not just headlines, but the data behind every decision.
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