Full year steel imports by the US surged 38% in 2014

SPOKANE (Scrap Monster) : Based on the preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the country’s import of total and finished steel during the entire year 2014 were up by 38% and 36% respectively, when compared with the imports during 2013.

The yearly imports of total and finished steel by the country in 2014 amounted to 44,320,000 net tons (NT) and 33,733,000 net tons (NT), respectively. According to data, the US imported a total of 3,620,000 net tons (NT) of steel in Dec ‘14, including 2,941,000 net tons (NT) of finished steel.

Key finished steel products with a significant import increase in Dec ‘14 compared to November are wire rods (up 36%), line pipe (up 13%), hot rolled bars (up 11%) and plates in coils (up 10%).

Also, key finished steel products which recorded significant increase in imports during entire year 2014 compared to the previous year are plates in coils (up 90%), cold rolled sheets (up 88%), wire rods (up 85%) and cut length plates (up 83%).

In December 2014, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were South Korea (418,000 NT, down 11% vs. Nov final), China (217,000 NT, down 16%), Japan (185,000 NT, up 20%), Russia (181,000 NT, up 415%) and Germany (164,000 NT, up 38%).

For the entire year 2014, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (5,448,000 NT, up 47%), China (3,187,000 NT, up 68%), Turkey (2,196,000 NT, up 82%), Japan (2,106,000 NT, up 11%) and Russia (1,418,000 NT, up 489%).