U.S. Finished Steel Imports To Record Marginal Decline in 2018

The imports of wire rods are likely to report biggest decline, falling by more than 25% from the previous year.

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Based on the latest U.S steel import data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) has predicted marginal decline in finished steel imports by the country during the entire year 2018. The yearly steel imports are likely to fall short of 30 million net tons (NT) in 2018, recording year-on-year decline by 1.5%. The total yearly steel imports in 2018 are likely to witness a decline of 3.4% when compared with the previous year.

According to AISI estimates, the total U.S. steel imports are likely to total 36.820 million NT in 2018, as compared with the imports of 38.126 million NT in 2017. The finished steel imports are likely to fall from 29.561 million NT to 29.117 million NT. It must be noted that the declining trend in imports continued in May ’18 with total steel imports down by 23.2% over the prior month. The finished steel imports had declined significantly by 16%, when compared with the final imports data during April ’18.

The AISI predicts notable decline in imports of several finished steel products in 2018. The imports of wire rods are likely to report biggest decline, falling by more than 25% from the previous year. The other products that are likely to see notable decline in imports are All Other Metallic Coated Sheets & Strip (-16.5%), cold rolled sheets (-14.2%), tin plates (-10.5%) and ingots and billets and slabs (-10.2%). On the contrary, hot rolled sheets are likely to report 25% jump in imports. Plates in Coils (+21.1%) and mechanical tubing (+13.9%) may also see increased imports in 2018.

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The imports from Turkey are likely to witness the strongest decline, falling by almost 38% over the previous year. The imports from Taiwan and Germany are projected to fall by nearly 9.9% and 6.3% respectively. On the other hand, the U.S. is likely to import more steel from Vietnam in 2018.

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