AISI Predicts 14% Drop in Finished Steel Imports

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 is based on the most recently published year-to-date steel import data by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The country is likely to witness 14.3% decline in finished steel imports in the entire year 2019. As per estimates, the full-year finished imports are likely to total 22.012 million net tons in 2019. The U.S. finished imports had totalled 25.694 million net tons in the whole of 2018. Meantime, the total steel imports are likely to see a decline of 11.9% from 33.731 million net tons in 2018 to 29.724 million net tons during this year, AISI said.

The AISI foresees modest to sharp decline in import volumes of majority of steel mill products during the year, barring a few. The hot rolled sheets imports are likely to decline the most, falling by nearly 26% from the previous year. The imports of plates in coils and cold rolled sheets are likely to drop by 24.1% and 22.9% respectively.

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Reinforcing bars, Tin Plates and Heavy Structural Shapes will be the only products to see increased volume of imports in 2019, compared with the previous year. The imports of Heavy Structural Shapes are forecast to see the biggest jump, with import volumes surging higher by 6.6%. The imports of reinforcing bars and tin plates are estimated to record year-on-year growth by 2.3% and 4.0% respectively.

The imports of finished steel mill products from Brazil are likely to surge higher by 27.7% in 2019. On the contrary, AISI forecasts contraction in finished imports from Vietnam and Germany by almost 33% and 18% respectively.