Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. imported a total of 2,177,000 net tons (NT) of steel in October 2019, including 1,479,000 net tons (NT) of finished steel (up 14.5 percent and down3.5 percent, respectively, vs. September final data).
Key finished steel products with a significant import increase in October compared to September were wire rods (up 24 percent), plates in coils (up 13 percent), sheets and strip hot dipped galvanized (up 13 percent), mechanical tubing (up 13 percent) and heavy structural shapes (up 12 percent).
In October the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (170,000 NT, up 8 percent from September final), Germany (79,000 NT, up 22 percent), Japan (74,000 NT, up 4 percent), Brazil (59,000 NT, up 54 percent) and Taiwan (39,000 NT, down 37 percent). For the first ten months of 2019, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (2,219,000 NT, down 11 percent vs. the same period in 2018), Japan (1,090,000 NT, down 7 percent), Germany (910,000 NT, down 17 percent), Taiwan (768,000 NT, down 16 percent) and Vietnam (622,000 NT, down 30 percent).
Published in the January 2020 Edition