U.S. Steel Imports Surged 17% in Early-2018

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): In accordance with the preliminary Census Bureau data, the US imports of total steel in January this year surged higher by17.3% from December final imports. The imports during the first month of the year totaled 2,875,202 net tons (NT). The finished steel imports were up by 23.8% from 1,880,356 MT in December 2017 to 2,327,103 NT in January 2018.

The imports of sheets and strip all other metallic coatings skyrocketed by 129.1% from 39,647 NT in December last year to 90,850 NT in Jan ’18. The imports of reinforcing bars surged higher by 81.5% to total 95,805 NT. The imports had totaled only 52,791 NT during December 2017. The other finished steel products to witness significant jump in import volumes were oil country goods (+78%), line pipe (+44%), standard pipe (+30%), hot rolled sheets (+27%) and hot rolled bars (+22%).

The only finished steel products to witness decline in import volumes were wire rods, cold rolled sheets and ingots and billets and slabs. The wire rod imports have dropped sharply by 13.4% from 83,927 NT to 72,710 NT over the previous month.  Cold rolled sheets witnessed 10.8% decline. The imports of ingots and billets and slabs declined by 4%, said the preliminary US Census Bureau data.

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Among various steel mill products, Ingots and Billets and Slabs saw the highest volume of imports. The imports totaled 543,049 NT during the month. In second place was Oil Country Goods (372,459 NT), followed by Sheets and Strip Galvanized Hot Dipped (221,936 NT). The other products to record significant import volume were Line Pipe (195,384 NT), Hot Rolled Sheets (195,196 NT) and Cold Rolled Sheets (183,549 NT).

In January 2018, the largest exporters of finished steel to the US were South Korea (339,000 NT, up 77% from December final), Japan (141,000 NT, up 73%), Turkey (140,000 NT, up 141%), Taiwan (117,000 NT, up 188%) and Brazil (102,000 NT, up 6%).