Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. imported a total of 1,502,000 net tons (NT) of steel in October 2020, including 1,244,000 NT of finished steel (up 19.6 percent and 6.6 percent, respectively, vs. September final data). Through the first 10 months of 2020, total and finished steel imports are 19,149,000 and 13,612,000 NT, down 22.8 percent and 25.9 percent, respectively, vs. the same period in 2019. Annualized total and finished steel imports in 2020 would be 23.0 and 16.3 million NT, down 17.7 percent and 22.4 percent, respectively, vs. 2019. Finished steel import market share was an estimated 18 percent in October and is estimated at 18 percent over the first ten months of 2020.
Key finished steel products with a significant increase in imports in October compared to September are oil country goods (up 105.9 percent), reinforcing bars (up 95.4 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 41.2 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 37.1 percent), wire rods (up 35.8 percent), hot rolled bars (31.3 percent) and wire drawn (up 16.2 percent).
In October the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (146,000 NT, up 17 percent from September final), Japan (78,000 NT, up 32 percent), Turkey (68,000 NT, up 943 percent), Germany (67,000 NT, up 31 percent) and Brazil (34,000 NT, up 5 percent). For the first ten months of 2020, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (1,664,000 NT, down 25 percent vs. the same period in 2019), Japan (665,000 NT, down 39 percent), Germany (592,000 NT, down 35 percent), Turkey (496,000 NT, up 75 percent) and Taiwan (487,000 NT, down 37 percent).
Published in the January 2021 Edition
