Preliminary U.S. Steel Imports Increase 1% in July
08/26/2013 - Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. imported a total of 2,475,000 tons of steel in July 2013, including 1,956,000 tons of finished steel (up 0.6% and down 0.9%, respectively, vs. June final data).
Year-to-date total and finished steel imports are 18,207,000 and 14,325,000 tons, respectively, down 11% and 10% vs. 2012. Annualized total and finished steel imports in 2013 would be 31.2 and 24.6 million tons, down 7% and 5% respectively vs. 2012. Finished steel import market share was estimated at 22% in July and is estimated at 23% YTD.
Key finished steel products with a significant import increase in July 2013 compared to June are wire rods (up 52%), hot rolled bars (up 23%) and hot rolled sheets (up 19%).
In July, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were all from Asia and Europe. They were from South Korea (263,000 tons, up 10% vs. June final), China (176,000 tons, up 14%), Japan (148,000 tons, up 12%), Germany (91,000 tons, down 15%) and Taiwan (73,000 tons, up 35%). For seven months of 2013, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (2,020,000 tons, down 10%), Japan (1,106,000 tons, down 8%), China (1,075,000 tons, up 16%), Turkey (798,000 tons, down 15%) and Germany (646,000 tons, down 11%).
