U.S. Finished Steel Imports Forecast to Surge This Year

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 estimates provided by the association are based on the import trends during the initial two-months period of the year.

The country is likely to witness marginal decline by 1% in finished steel imports during the entire year 2021. As per estimates, the full-year finished imports are likely to total 15.974 million net tons in 2021. The U.S. finished imports had totalled 16.139 million net tons in the whole of 2020. Meantime, the total steel imports are likely to witness a surge of 17.4% from 22.019 million net tons in 2020 to 25.858 million net tons during this year, AISI said.

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The AISI foresees modest to sharp decline in import volumes of a large number of steel mill products during the year. The imports of standard pipes are likely to register the biggest decline, falling by 26.3% from the previous year. The imports of line pipes and tin plates are likely to drop by 26.0% and 25.4% respectively. On the other hand, the imports of Ingots and Billets and Slabs are expected to surge higher significantly by 68.2% year-on-year in 2021.

The imports of finished steel mill products from Turkey are likely to surge higher by 68.9% in 2021. On the contrary, AISI forecasts nearly 36% contraction in finished imports from Taiwan during the year.