Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. imported a total of 2,630,000 net tons (NT) of steel in June 2016, including 2,218,000 NT of finished steel (down 8.6 percent and up 6.3 percent, respectively, vs. May final data).
Year to date (YTD) through 6 months of 2016 total and finished steel imports are 15,516,000 and 12,773,000 NT, both down 29 percent vs. the same period in 2015.
Key finished steel products with a significant import increase in June compared to May are sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 44 percent), reinforcing bars (up 39 percent), line pipe (up 26 percent), plates in coils (up 19 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 19 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 14 percent), hot rolled bars (up 13 percent) and tin plate (up 12 percent).
In June, the largest volumes of offshore finished steel imports were from South Korea (334,000 NT, down 5 percent from May final), Turkey (196,000 NT up 33 percent), Japan (145,000 NT, up 23 percent), Germany (122,000 NT, down 2 percent) and Taiwan (94,000 NT, up 27 percent).
For 6 months of 2016, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (1,923,000 NT, down 37 percent), Turkey (1,195,000 NT, down 26 percent), Japan (855,000 NT, down 31 percent), Germany (609,000 NT, down 26 percent) and Brazil (495,000 NT, down 28 percent).
Published in the September 2016 Edition of American Recycler News
