Benefited from the surged steel demand and prices after the COVID-19 epidemic, South Korea’s POSCO raised its crude steel output forecast for 2021 from 37.8 million tons to 38.2 million tons, and the annual sales volume was also raised from 35.4 million tons to 35.6 million tons for this year.

In the second quarter of this year, POSCO’s crude steel output reached 9.45 million tons, slightly dropping by 1.15% compared to the previous quarter, due to the scheduled maintenance plans at Pohang and Gwangyang Works.

Due to the overhaul plans, POSCO’s second-quarter utilization rate of crude steel was down to 93.2% from 95.3% in the previous quarter.