Affected by US tariffs, South Korean steel giant announced that it has entered a state of “emergency management”

Hyundai Steel, South Korea’s second-largest steelmaker, recently announced that it was entering a state of “emergency management”, a decision mainly affected by the US’s 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum products. Hyundai Steel faces multiple challenges such as a sluggish domestic construction market, intensified international competition, and union strikes. In response to these pressures, the company has taken measures such as cutting executive salaries, implementing a voluntary retirement plan for employees, and reducing the scale of operations of some factories.

In addition, the United States has canceled South Korea’s annual duty-free quota of 2.63 million tons of steel exported to the United States, which has dealt a greater blow to the Korean steel industry. It is estimated that the US tariff policy may burden the Korean steel industry with more than 1.2 trillion won.