Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. imported a total of 3,349,000 net tons (NT) of steel in August 2017, including 2,422,000 NT of finished steel (down 4.8 percent and 16.8 percent, respectively, vs. July final data). Year-to-date (YTD) through 8 months of 2017, total and finished steel imports are 26,561,000 and 20,401,000 net tons (NT), up 20.6 percent and 15.5 percent, respectively, vs. the same period in 2016.
Key finished steel products with significant import increases in August compared to July include wire drawn (up 8 percent). Major products with significant YTD increases vs. the same period in 2016 include oil country goods (up 250 percent), standard pipe (up 47 percent), line pipe (up 42 percent), sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 33 percent), mechanical tubing (up 32 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 31 percent), sheets and strip hot dipped galvanized (up 25 percent) and hot rolled bars (up 19 percent).
In August, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (351,000 NT, up 3 percent from July final), Japan (128,000 NT, down 7 percent), Taiwan (121,000 NT, up 1 percent), Turkey (101,000 NT, down 61 percent) and Germany (99,000 NT, down 33 percent). For the first eight months of 2017, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (2,620,000 NT, down 3 percent vs. the same period in 2016), Turkey (1,827,000 NT, up 8 percent), Japan (1,065,000 NT, down 17 percent), Taiwan (906,000 NT, up 39 percent) and Germany (849,000 NT, up 2 percent).
Published in the November 2017 Edition of American Recycler News