According to data from the Korea Iron and Steel Association (KOSA), the sales of hot-rolled carbon steel strips totaled around 12.86 million tons in the first 11 months of this year, dropping year on year. The sales in December were likely to slide greatly year on year, so a 10% drop was expected for the full-year sales.

The overall sales declined sharply due to the stagnated recovery of domestic and foreign demand, the flood damage at POSCO's Pohang Works, and the strike at Hyundai Steel’s Dangjin Works.

The overall export performance was better than domestic sales. It was believed that 2022 is a difficult year for South Korean hot-rolled companies in the demand.