South Korean steelmakers have indefinitely stopped production in Pohang, as flooding caused by Typhoon Hinnamnor brought operations to a standstill.

          Leading steelmaker POSCO suspended operations at three blast furnaces at its Pohang plants.

          "The three blast furnaces, the core facilities of the steelworks, were not damaged, but they are temporarily suspended and are expected to operate normally when the electricity supply is restored," Posco Holdings said Sept. 7.

          POSCO, which had shut two of the three furnaces on Sept. 6 to minimize damage from the typhoon, also shuttered the third furnace due to a power outage.

          Pohang's blast furnaces No. 3 and No. 4 are classified as 'super-gigantic' furnaces with individual volumes of 5,600 cu m.

          Also, a fire broke out after the typhoon passed South Korea early-Sept. 6, causing minor damages to POSCO's hot-rolled and stainless steel production lines at Pohang. Nevertheless, the flooding has caused production to stop.

           As of Dec. 31, 2021, POSCO had about 40.7 million mt/year of crude steel and stainless steel production capacity in South Korea, and 45.3 million mt/year globally.

          "The timing of restoration of the production process for products such as the hot-rolled line damaged by flooding is undecided," Posco Holdings said.

          Amid the shutdown, POSCO plans to transfer some of the steel production at Pohang to its Gwangyang Works, as the latter was not affected by the typhoon.

          "POSCO just started to drain water from plant, is calculating the damage and decide the solution," said a source.

          Basically, all the production lines have been affected including wire rod, hot-rolled coil and plate. It was too early to judge the further impact and whether South Korea buyers would choose to import to meet the domestic demand, the source added.

          In the meantime, the mill has yet to update its recent wire rod price in the domestic market after the damage, with the latest at Won 800,000/mt ($577/mt) Sept. 2.

          "Stainless price in Asia has seen a significant pick up after the accidents in South Korea," said a trader.

          The source added that there was limited impact on the HRC market in Southeast Asia given South Korea is not a major exporter of HRC in the region, but the development will likely have some bearing on European and American markets.

          A Posco Holdings affiliate, Posco Steeleon, has also indefinitely stopped production of steel sheets at its Pohang plant on Sept. 6, it said.

          Formerly known as POSCO Coated & Color Steel, the company said it was suspending "operation due to flood damage caused by Typhoon Hinnamnor."

          The production has been stopped to allow for repairs to equipment damaged by the flood.

          Posco Steeleon manufactures coated steel products including galvanized and aluminized steel sheets. Its domestic production lines have an overall production capacity of 960,000 mt/year of galvanized/color-coated steel.

          Likewise, Hyundai Steel has stopped production of long and heavy machinery steel products at its Pohang Works due the damage caused by floods. The products manufactured at Pohang include rebar, H-beams and continuous tracks, also known as tank or caterpillar tracks.

          The steelmaker operates a 3.2 million mt/year electric arc furnace at Pohang, which also has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year of tracks.

          Pohang also has medium- and heavy-section mills with a total capacity of about 1.4 million mt/year.

          Hyundai Steel will make up for the stopped production by increasing steel inventories and production rates at is steelworks in Incheon and Dangjin, it said.