South Korea's steel and iron imports from China declined on-year in February for the first time in 16 months, industry data showed Wednesday, easing some of the local steelmakers' concerns that the low-priced products would hurt profit. 

Total imports of iron and steel products from the world's No. 2 economy dropped 12.3 percent on-year to 905,000 tons last month, according to data from the Korea Iron & Steel Association (KOSA).

The latest data marks the first downward change in more than a year, with the figures having surged from between 20 and 50 percent monthly on-year throughout 2014. 

Overall steel and iron imports have also gone down, with the number falling 7.3 percent on-year to 1.6 million tons last month, according to the data.

The inflow of the products from the neighboring country has been a source of growing concern for South Korean steel companies in regards to price competitiveness.

Last year, China accounted for more than half of South Korea's total import of steel and iron products at 13.4 million tons, a six-year high, according to the data.

Industry watchers, however, caution that it is still too soon to tell whether local businesses are actually getting back on their feet.

"The short-term decline in imports is not enough to be seen as a sign of improved business environment just yet," a KOSA official said.

"We should keep watch of how things progress down the road, as steel and iron imports in general were on a steep uptrend last year." (Yonhap)