U.S. Finished Steel Imports to Witness 2% Decline in 2019

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) estimates the country’s finished steel imports during the entire year 2019 to report over 2% decline, when compared with 2018. The Institute’s forecast is based on the steel import trends during the initial two months of the current year.

According to AISI, the total and finished steel imports by the US during Jan-Feb ’19 totaled 5.912 million NT and 4.194 million NT respectively. The imports of total steel by the U.S. have surged higher by 10.2%, whereas those of finished steel have dropped by 3.6%, when matched with the corresponding two-month period in 2018.

As per data, finished steel imports by the country are likely to total 35.470 million NT, marginally higher by 5.2% when matched with the yearly import total of 33.731 million NT in 2018. The annualized imports of total steel are expected to decline by 2.1% from 25.694 million NT in 2018 to 25.164 million NT in 2019.

The imports from Vietnam are likely to witness the sharpest fall of 20.5%. Also, Japan is likely to report marginal drop in supplies to the U.S. The imports from Germany and Taiwan are likely to fall by 3.5% and 2.9% respectively over the previous year. The imports from Brazil are projected to witness massive jump by nearly 89% over the previous year. The other countries that are likely to report notable jump in finished steel supply to the U.S. are South Korea (+18.9%), Italy (+42.6%) and China (+2.5%).

Among various steel mill products, Line Pipes are likely to witness huge jump in import volumes. The imports of these products are likely to increase by nearly 48%. The other products to see significant rise in imports are Ingots and Billets and Slabs (+28.5%) and Oil Country Goods (+13%).