Based on preliminary U.S. Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. imported a total of 3,483,000 net tons (NT) of steel in April 2015, including 2,938,000 NT of finished steel (down 3.7 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively, vs. March final data).
Year-to-date (YTD) total and finished steel imports are 15,204,000 and 12,606,000 NT, respectively, up 13 percent and 27 percent respectively, vs. the same period in 2014.
Key finished steel products with a significant import increase in April compared to March are standard pipe (up 30 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 26 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 21 percent) and sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 14 percent). Major products with significant YTD import increases vs. the same period last year include line pipe (up 93 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 81 percent), cut lengths plates (up 49 percent), standard pipe (up 49 percent), plates in coils (up 33 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 31 percent), reinforcing bars (up 30 percent), sheets and strip galvanized hot dipped (up 29 percent), tin plate (up 29 percent), oil country goods (up 23 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 17 percent), sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 16 percent) and wire drawn (up 12 percent).
In April, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (511,000 NT, down 9 percent vs. March final), Turkey (214,000 NT, down 48 percent), China (293,000 NT, up 8 percent), Japan (226,000 NT, up 25 percent) and Taiwan (123,000 NT, down 27 percent). For the first four months of 2015, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (2,389,000 NT, up 52 percent), Turkey (1,210,000 NT, up 98 percent), China (1,028,000 NT, up 5 percent), Japan (862,000 NT, up 22 percent) and Germany (543,000 NT, up 44 percent).
Published in the July 2015 Edition of American Recycler News