Finished Steel Imports To Slip by 19% in 2020

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) forecasts significant decline in imports of finished steel by the country during the current year.

The country is likely to witness 18.5% decline in finished steel imports in the entire year 2020. As per estimates, the full-year finished imports are likely to total 17.160 million net tons during this year. The U.S. finished imports had totalled 21.051 million net tons in the whole of 2019. Meantime, the total steel imports are likely to see a decline of 7.4% from 27.937 million net tons in 2019 to 25.865 million net tons during this year, AISI said.

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The AISI foresees modest to sharp decline in import volumes of majority of steel mill products during the year, barring a few. The imports of line pipes are likely to decline the most, falling by nearly 56.4% from the previous year. The imports of oil country goods and plates in coils are likely to drop by 38.5% and 26.7% respectively.

Ingots and Billets and Slabs, Sheets and Strip All Other Met., and Tin Free Steel will be the only products to see increased volume of imports in 2020. The imports of Tin Free Steel are forecast to see the biggest surge, rising by 35.2% from 2019.

The imports of finished steel mill products from Turkey are likely to surge higher by 95.9% in 2020. On the contrary, AISI forecasts contraction in finished imports from Japan and Germany by almost 33% and 30% respectively.