Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. imported a total of 2,480,000 net tons (NT) of steel in June 2018, including 1,843,000 NT of finished steel (down 15.5 percent and 24.6 percent, respectively, vs. May final data).
Year-to-date (YTD) through 6 months of 2018, total and finished steel imports are 17,869,000 and 13,999,000 NT, down 9.3 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively, vs. the same period in 2017.
A key finished steel product with a significant import increase in June compared to May was sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 11 percent). Major products with significant YTD increases vs. the same period in 2017 include hot rolled sheets (up 24 percent), plates in coils (up 21 percent), line pipe (up 14 percent) and mechanical tubing (up 11 percent).
In June, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (208,000 NT, up 89 percent from May final), Japan (129,000 NT, up 7 percent), Vietnam (120,000 NT, up 61 percent), Germany (111,000 NT, down 21 percent) and Taiwan (93,000 NT, up 20 percent). For the first six months of 2018, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (1,740,000 NT, down 10 percent vs. the same period in 2017), Japan (741,000 NT, down 7 percent), Germany (660,000 NT, up 10 percent), Turkey (647,000 NT, down 56 percent) and Taiwan (560,000 NT, down 16 percent).
Published in the September 2018 Edition