U.S. Exports of Steel Bars Surged 19%

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The U.S. exports of miscellaneous steel bars increased 18.88% through October to $585.71 million. This is in accordance with the latest trade statistics published by the U.S. Census Bureau. Through the first ten months of 2017, the country had exported only $492.69 million of steel bars. The year-to-date exports in 2018 have already surpassed the full year 2017 exports total of $582.77 million.

The top trade partner during Jan-Oct ’18 was Mexico. The exports to that country increased sharply by 25.85% over the previous year to total around $249 million. In second place was Canada, which received $227.9 million worth of steel bars from the U.S. The Canadian imports from the U.S. were up by nearly 11%, when compared with Jan-Oct ’17. The combined exports to Mexico and Canada accounted for more than 81% of the total U.S. shipments during this period.

Meantime, the country imported 6.72% more steel bars until October this year. The imports were up from $698.75 million to $745.71 million over the previous year. The leading sources of import were Canada ($130.03 million), China ($123.39 million), Sweden ($66.4 million), South Korea ($43.4 million) and the U.K. ($40.53 million). The leading gateway of imports was the Port of Houston.

The combined imports from the above five foreign markets equaled $403.76 million, accounting for 54.14% of all imports of miscellaneous steel bars by the U.S during Jan-Oct ’18.