Based on final Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. imported a total of 2,062,000 net tons (NT) of steel in May 2019, including 1,853,000 net tons (NT) of finished steel (down 38.2 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively, vs. April final data).
Through the first 5 months of 2019, total and finished steel imports are 13,584,000 and 9,953,000 NT, down 11.7 percent and 18.1 percent, respectively, vs. the same period in 2018. Annualized total and finished steel imports in 2019 would be 32.6 and 23.9 million NT, down 3.3 percent and 7.0 percent, respectively, vs. 2018. Finished steel import market share was an estimated 19 percent in May and is estimated at 21 percent over the first five months of 2019.
Key finished steel products with a significant import increase in May compared to April were sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 100 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 98 percent), reinforcing bars (up 56 percent), hot rolled bars (up 17 percent), and standard pipe (up 15 percent). The major finished product with a significant year-to-date (YTD) increase vs. the same period in 2018 was line pipe (up 11 percent).
In May, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (290,000 NT, up 5 percent from April final), Japan (124,000 NT, down 22 percent), Taiwan (81,000 NT, up 13 percent), Germany (64,000 NT, down 56 percent) and Vietnam (61,000 NT, down 23 percent). For the first 5 months of 2019, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (1,287,000 NT, down 16 percent vs. the same period in 2018), Japan (611,000 NT, no change), Germany (517,000 NT, down 6 percent), Taiwan (436,000 NT, down 7 percent) and Vietnam (368,000 NT, down 5 percent).
Published in the August 2019 Edition