U.S. Finished Steel Imports Surged 23% in March

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster):  The preliminary data released by the US Census Bureau indicates significant jump in imports of total and finished steel in March this year, upon comparison with February final data. Meantime, the year-to-date imports during Jan-Mar ’18 were down marginally over the corresponding quarterly period in 2017. The U.S. steel import permits had soared nearly 42% in March this year.

According to data, the U.S. steel imports totaled 3,327,415 net tons (NT) during March this year. This is significantly higher by 34.2% when matched with the February final imports of 2,479,998 NT. Also, the finished steel imports during the month soared by 23% from the final imports of 2,016,579 NT in February this year to 2,479,697 NT in March. The cumulative total and finished steel imports during the initial three-month period in 2018 were down marginally by 3.0% and 1.7% respectively. The finished steel import market share was estimated at 26% in March, U.S.  Census Bureau data said.

Going by the current rate, the annualized imports of total and finished steel in 2018 are likely to end lower than 2017. The total steel imports are projected to fall by 8.8% from 2017 to total 34.8 million NT. Similarly, the finished steel imports are likely to total 27.3 million NT, lower by 7.6% when compared with the previous year.

ALSO READ: EU Studying Impacts of U.S. Steel Tariffs

Reinforcing Bars were the finished steel product to report highest jump in import volumes during March. The imports of the material surged higher by 215% when compared with the prior month. The other product to see notable increase in import volume was Ingots and Billets and Slabs, the imports of which were up by 84% when compared with February. Plates in Coils reported nearly 60% jump in import volumes during the month. Cold Rolled Sheets (+42.2%) and Hot rolled sheets (+41.8%) too reported significant increase in imports.

The U.S. imported the largest volume of finished steel products from South Korea. The imports from that country increased sharply by 9% over the previous month to total 317,000 NT. The other key supplies were Japan, Turkey, Vietnam and Taiwan.