Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. imported a total of 3,135,000 net tons (NT) of steel in January 2020, including 1,633,000 NT of finished steel (down 9.9 percent and 33.4 percent, respectively, vs. January 2019). Total and finished steel imports are up 97.7 percent and 20.4 percent, respectively, vs. the prior month, December 2019.
Finished steel import market share was an estimated 17 percent in January 2020.
Key finished steel products with a significant import increase in January compared to December are reinforcing bars (up 134 percent), sheet and strip all other metallic coatings (up 126 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 98 percent), wire rods (up 66 percent), sheets and strip galvanized hot dipped (up 56 percent), mechanical tubing (up 43 percent), wire drawn (up 33 percent) and standard pipe (up 13 percent).
In January the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (182,000 NT, up 8 percent from December final), Brazil (88,000 NT, up 579 percent), Japan (76,000 NT, up 14 percent), Spain (55,000 NT, up 79 percent) and Turkey (51,000 NT, up 606 percent).
Published in the April 2020 Edition
