US Preliminary Steel Imports declined 4% in April

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported today that the U.S. imported a total of 3,483 ,000 net tons (NT) of steel in April 2015, including 2,938,000 net tons (NT) of finished steel (down 3.7% and 7.8%, respectively, vs. March final data).

Year-to-date (YTD) total and finished steel imports are 15,204,000 and 12,606,000 net tons (NT), respectively, up 13% and 27% respectively, vs. the same period in 2014. Finished steel import market share was an estimated 33% in April.

Key finished steel products with a significant import increase in April compared to the previous month are standard pipe (up 30%), heavy structural shapes (up 26%), cold rolled sheets (up 21%) and sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 14%).

The major products that recorded significant rise in import volumes year-to-date in comparison with the similar four-month period in 2014 are line pipe (up 93%), heavy structural shapes (up 81%), cut lengths plates (up 49%), standard pipe(up 49%), plates in coils (up 33%), cold rolled sheets (up 31%), reinforcing bars (up 30%), sheets and strip galvanized hot dipped (up 29%), tin plate (up 29%), oil country goods (up 23%), hot rolled sheets (up 17%), sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 16%) and wire drawn (up 12%).

In April, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (511,000 NT, down 9% vs. March final), Turkey (214,000 NT, down 48%), China (293,000 NT, up 8%), Japan (226,000 NT, up 25%) and Taiwan (123,000 NT, down 27%).

The largest offshore suppliers for the initial four-month period of the year were South Korea (2,389,000 NT, up 52%), Turkey (1,210,000 NT, up 98%), China (1,028,000 NT, up 5%), Japan (862,000 NT, up 22%) and Germany (543,000 NT, up 44%)

Courtesy: American Iron and Steel Institute