Nov. 29, 2006 — The United States imported a total of 3,823,000 net tons of steel in October 2006, according to the latest report from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).

The report, which is based on preliminary Census Bureau data, shows that the total included 3,082,000 net tons of finished steel, a 0.9% decrease compared to the previous month, September 2006. Total imports were 2.0% lower than the previous month’s total.

Despite the recent slight deceleration, year-to-date (YTD) imports in these categories are now up 45% and 46%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2005. Projecting the totals (based on YTD 2006 imports), total and finished steel imports (at 46.5 and 36.8 million net tons, respectively) would set all-time records – easily surpassing the previous record of 41.5 million net tons and 34.7 million net tons set in 1998.

Key products with large increases in October compared to the month before include

• Steel piling, +407%
• Tin free steel, +39%
• Tin plate, +34%
• Line pipe, +29%
• Plates in coils, +27%
• Oil country goods, +18%
• Sheets & strips, all other metallic, +13%

The rise in YTD 2006 imports compared to the previous year remains pronounced for countries with a history of unfair trading, particularly in Asia — including Thailand (+165%), China (+125%) and South Korea (+61%). YTD imports from Russia are up 106% vs. last year. In October, for the fourth month in a row, China, a non-market economy, was the single largest source of steel imports to the United States, with 596,000 net tons. Imports from China were 338% higher in October 2006 than in the same month last year; at their present pace, will exceed 5 million tons this year.

“With many of the same offenders that have a history of unfair trade continuing to send huge volumes of imports into the U.S., it is critical for the U.S. government to strictly enforce the nation’s trade laws. Not to do so risks returning the U.S. steel industry, its workers and its suppliers, representing 1.2 million American jobs, to the crisis conditions that prevailed earlier in this decade,” said AISI Chairman Louis L. Schorsch, who is CEO of Mittal Steel’s Flat Products Americas. “Failure to enforce our trade laws undermines the benefits that the recent consolidation and restructuring has achieved on half of all of our stakeholders. We cannot allow those who trade unfairly to put our progress at risk.”

“What is occurring in world steel trade today is that an enormous non-market economy - China - has massive steel overcapacity and surging steel exports to the U.S. and the world, which are supported by government currency manipulation, subsidies, trade barriers and export restrictions on raw materials,” said AISI’s Andrew G. Sharkey III. “Without strong and strictly enforced trade laws, these policies will continue to create huge regional imbalances, distort global market forces and drive displaced steel from other countries to the open U.S. market.”