According to the statistics from the Korea Iron & Steel Association (KOSA), the imports of hot-rolled stainless steel wide strip totaled around 36,000 tons this September, down by 22.4% compared to the previous month, which hit a new low this year.

The sharp decrease in the imports of South Korean hot-rolled stainless steel in September was supposed that the contract volume has dropped due to the high offers from China in July. 

Besides, the domestic market prices and demand for stainless steel in South Korea were weak in July to August, which caused low competitiveness in import prices, so the import contract volume reduced accordingly.