Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. imported a total of 3,016,000 net tons (NT) of steel in August 2015, including 2,439,000 NT of finished steel (down 8.2 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively, vs. July final data).
Year-to-date (YTD) through 8 months of 2015 total and finished steel imports are 28,023,000 and 22,915,000 NT, respectively, down 2 percent and up 7 percent, versus the same period in 2014.
Finished steel import market share was an estimated 26 percent in August and is estimated at 31 percent YTD. Key finished steel products with a significant import increase in August compared to July are wire rods (up 45 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 29 percent), oil country goods (up 15 percent) and standard pipe (up 14 percent). Major products with significant YTD import increases versus the same period last year include reinforcing bars (up 51 percent), line pipe (up 40 percent), standard pipe (up 30 percent), sheets and strip hot dipped galvanized (up 19 percent), tin plate (up 17 percent), wire drawn (up 11 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 11 percent) and plates in coils (up 10 percent).
In August, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (303,000 NT, down 1 percent versus July final), Japan (215,000 NT, up 20 percent), Brazil (211,000 NT, up 124 percent), China (157,000 NT, down 45 percent) and Turkey (153,000 NT, down 41 percent). For eight months of 2015, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (3,670,000 NT, up 1 percent), Turkey (2,020,000 NT, up 55 percent), China (1,961,000 NT, down 3 percent), Japan (1,626,000 NT, up 20 percent) and Germany (1,052,000 NT, up 34 percent).
Published in the November 2015 Edition of American Recycler News