US Preliminary Steel Imports rose 8.6% in March

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 3,588 ,000 net tons (NT) of steel in March 2015, including 3,159,000 net tons (NT) of finished steel (down 3.3% and up 8.6%, respectively, vs. February final data).

Year-to-date (YTD) total and finished steel imports are 11,693,000 and 9,640,000 net tons (NT), respectively, up 20% and 35% respectively, vs. the same period in 2014. Finished steel import market share was an estimated 34% in March.

Key finished steel products with a significant import increase in March compared to the previous month are sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 74%), reinforcing bars (up 65%), tin plate (up 38%), wire drawn (up 37%), line pipe (up 34%), hot rolled bars (up 25%), sheet and strip hot dipped galvanized (up 21%) and standard pipe (up 13%).

The major products that recorded significant rise in import volumes year-to-date in comparison with the similar three-month period in 2014 are line pipe (up 107%), heavy structural shapes (up 87%), cut lengths plates (up 78%), standard pipe (up 50%), plates-in-coils (up 48%), cold rolled sheets (up 43%),tin plate (up 39%), oil country goods (up 33%), sheets and strip galvanized hot dipped (up 32%), reinforcing bars (up 22%),hot rolled sheets (up 19%) and sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 13%)

In March, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (561,000 NT, up 17% vs. February final), Turkey (392,000 NT, up 36%), China (272,000 NT, up 3%), Japan (179,000 NT, down 16%) and Taiwan (168,000 NT, up 61%).

The largest offshore suppliers for the initial three-month period of the year were South Korea (1,879,000 NT, up 61%), Turkey (980,000 NT, up 109%), China (735,000 NT, up 30%), Japan (633,000 NT, up 27%) and Germany (422,000 NT, up 52%)

Courtesy: American Iron and Steel Institute