Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. imported a total of 3,738,000 net tons (NT) of steel in April 2018, including 2,860,000 NT of finished steel (up 12.1 percent and 15.1 percent, respectively, vs. March final data).
Year-to-date through four months of 2018, total and finished steel imports are 12,436,000 and 9,696,000 NT, up 1.1 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively, vs. the same period in 2017.
Key finished steel products with significant import increases in April compared to March include line pipe (up 87 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 57 percent), tin plate (up 53 percent), reinforcing bars (up 47 percent), hot rolled bars (up 39 percent), sheets and strip hot dipped galvanized (up 24 percent), sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 23 percent), standard pipe (up 20 percent), cut lengths plates (up 16 percent), and plates in coils (up 11 percent). Major products with significant year-to-date increases vs. the same period in 2017 include plates in coils (up 43 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 40 percent), line pipe (up 31 percent), oil country goods (up 25 percent), mechanical tubing (up 23 percent) and hot rolled bars (up 12 percent).
In April, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (472,000 NT, up 49 percent from March final), Turkey (146,000 NT, up 9 percent), Vietnam (131,000 NT, up 62 percent), Germany (120,000 NT, up 64 percent) and Taiwan (115,000 NT, up 46 percent). For the first four months of 2018, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (1,418,000 NT, up 17 percent vs. the same period in 2017), Japan (492,000 NT, down 6 percent), Turkey (476,000 NT, down 52 percent), Germany (409,000 NT, up 21 percent) and Taiwan (390,000 NT, down 8 percent).
Published in the August 2018 Edition
