Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. imported a total of 3,868,000 net tons (NT) of steel in June 2017, including 2,941,000 net tons (NT) of finished steel (up 11.6 percent and 12.8 percent, respectively, vs. May final data).
Year-to-date (YTD) through six months of 2017, total and finished steel imports are 19,641,000 and 15,024,000 net tons (NT), up 25.0 percent and 17.2 percent, respectively, vs. the same period in 2016.
Key finished steel products with significant import increases in June compared to May include reinforcing bars (up 84 percent), sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 61 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 40 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 32 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 29 percent), mechanical tubing (up 25 percent), oil country goods (up 19 percent), hot rolled bars (up 12 percent) and plates in coils (up 11 percent). Major products with significant year-to-date (YTD) increases vs. the same period in 2016 include oil country goods (up 248 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 41 percent), sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 36 percent), standard pipe (up 35 percent), line pipe (up 32 percent), mechanical tubing (up 29 percent), hot rolled bars (up 28 percent), sheets and strip hot dipped galvanized (up 26 percent), tin plate (up 17 percent) and wire rods (up 10 percent).
In June, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (388,000 NT, up 18 percent from May final), Turkey (328,000 NT, up 113 percent), Taiwan (163,000 NT, up 126 percent), Japan (125,000 NT, down 9 percent) and Germany (116,000 NT, down 21 percent). For the first six months of 2017, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (1,928,000 NT, down 1 percent vs. the same period in 2016), Turkey (1,470,000 NT, up 23 percent), Japan (785,000 NT, down 10 percent), Taiwan (660,000 NT, up 68 percent) and Germany (602,000 NT, down 2 percent).
Published in the September 2017 Edition of American Recycler News