Finished Steel Imports Surged 12% in March

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) announced that the total steel imports by the U.S. were 1.750 million net tons in March this year. This is based on the monthly imports data published by the U.S. Census Bureau. The imports were up by almost 16%, compared with the February 2020 final imports, which had totalled 1.510 million net tons.

The finished steel imports during the month totalled 1.511 million net tons, higher by 12.1% upon comparison with the final finished steel imports of 1.348 million net tons in the prior month. The largest offshore suppliers of finished steel in March 2020 were South Korea, Germany and Taiwan.

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Through the first three months of 2020, the country recorded total and finished steel imports of 6.410 million net tons and 4.507 million net tons respectively. The year-to-date imports of total and finished steel reported sharp declines by 21.7% and 25.6% respectively, over the previous year.

Imports of Heavy Structural Shapes reported largest decline, falling by nearly 64%. On the other hand, Oil County Goods saw significant jump in import volumes, surging higher by 129% from Feb ’20. The other finished steel product to witness notable volume jump was Line Pipes, the imports of which were up by 93% from the previous year.