Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. imported a total of 2,000,000 net tons (NT) of steel in August 2019, including 1,783,000 net tons (NT) of finished steel (down 34.0 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively, vs. July final data).
Through the first 8 months of 2019, total and finished steel imports are 20,668,000 and 15,321,000 NT, down 13.6 percent and 15.9 percent, respectively, vs. the same period in 2018. Annualized total and finished steel imports in 2019 would be 31.0 and 23.0 million NT, down 8.1 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively, vs. 2018. Finished steel import market share was an estimated 19 percent in August and is estimated at 20 percent over the first eight months of 2019.
In August the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (263,000 NT, up 46 percent from July final), Japan (134,000 NT, up 54 percent), Germany (75,000 NT, down 1 percent), Taiwan (61,000 NT, down 28 percent) and Spain (56,000 NT, up 47 percent). For the first 8 months of 2019, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (1,892,000 NT, down 10 percent vs. the same period in 2018), Japan (944,000 NT, down 3 percent), Germany (767,000 NT, down 12 percent), Taiwan (668,000 NT, down 10 percent) and Vietnam (543,000 NT, down 22 percent).
Published in the November 2019 Edition