(image: BGF Retail)
SEOUL, Jan. 31 (Korea Bizwire) — The unexpectedly high demand for hot packs this winter is causing a shortage of their main ingredient, iron powder, according to retail businesses on Wednesday.
Sales of hot packs jumped 92.9 percent last week from the same period a year ago at convenience store chain CU. The increase from the prior week was 5.7-fold as temperatures dipped to near seven-year lows for days.
Hot packs, which are activated on contact with oxygen to generate heat, need iron powder as one of their main ingredients. Retail businesses say there are signs of shortage of the powder, which is produced only at two manufacturers locally.
TPG said it was able to secure 7 tons of iron powder per day in December, less than half of the 15 tons needed to produce the targeted number of hot packs.
“The market for hot packs is growing more than 150 percent every year, but this is the first time that we had a shortage problem for iron powder,” a company official said. “This winter has been extremely cold, and there were also mass purchases by agencies ahead of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics,” he said.
Another official said manufacturers have already supplied more than the expected demand for hot packs this year as of the end of January. “If this trend continues, the shortage of iron powder will create problems,” he said.
Officials at CU said they are stocking up on other weather products like face masks, mittens and earmuffs.
(Yonhap)
