Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. imported a total of 2,569,000 net tons (NT) of steel in March 2016, including 2,097,000 NT of finished steel (up 12.9 percent and down 0.1 percent, respectively, vs. February final data).
Year-to-date (YTD) through three months of 2016 total and finished steel imports are 7,493,000 and 6,424,000 net tons (NT), down 36 percent and 34 percent respectively, vs. the same period in 2015.
Key finished steel products with a significant import increase in March compared to February are reinforcing bars (up 35 percent), sheet and strip all other metallic coatings (up 24 percent), cut lengths plates (up 21 percent) and wire drawn (up 11 percent).
In March, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (278,000 NT, down 26 percent from February Final), Turkey (276,000 NT, up 33 percent), Japan (148,000 NT, up 30 percent), Brazil (72,000 NT, up 23 percent) and Germany (72,000 NT, down 11 percent).
For three months of 2016, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (896,000 NT, down 52 percent), Turkey (729,000 NT, down 27 percent), Japan (451,000 NT, down 29 percent), Brazil (285,000 NT, down 27 percent) and Germany (274,000 NT, down 35 percent).
Published in the June 2016 Edition of American Recycler News