Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. imported a total of 3,327,000 net tons (NT) of steel in March 2018, including 2,480,000 net tons (NT) of finished steel (up 34.2 percent and 23.0 percent, respectively, vs. February final data).
Year-to-date (YTD) through three months of 2018, total and finished steel imports are 8,690,000 and 6,831,000 NT, down 3.0 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively, vs. the same period in 2017. Annualized total and finished steel imports in 2018 would be 34.8 and 27.3 million NT, down 8.8 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively, vs. 2017. Finished steel import market share was an estimated 26 percent in March and is estimated at 25 percent YTD.
Key finished steel products with significant import increases in March compared to February include reinforcing bars (up 215 percent), plates in coils (up 60 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 42 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 42 percent), sheets and strip hot dipped galvanized (up 30 percent), standard pipe (up 27 percent), oil country goods (up 27 percent), mechanical tubing (up 27 percent), and sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 12 percent). Major products with significant year-to-date (YTD) increases vs. the same period in 2017 include oil country goods (up 41 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 39 percent), plates in coils (up 33 percent), mechanical tubing (up 26 percent), hot rolled bars (up 17 percent) and line pipe (up 10 percent).
In March, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (317,000 NT, up 9 percent from February final), Japan (154,000 NT, up 60 percent), Turkey (134,000 NT, up 138 percent), Vietnam (81,000 NT, up 147 percent) and Taiwan (79,000 NT, up 1 percent). For the first three months of 2018, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (947,000 NT, up 6 percent vs. the same period in 2017), Japan (393,000 NT, up 3 percent), Turkey (330,000 NT, down 59 percent), Germany (288,000 NT, up 27 percent) and Taiwan (275,000 NT, down 10 percent).
Published in the June 2018 Edition
