US Preliminary Steel Imports see sharp decline in June

By  Paul Ploumis 09 Jul 2015  Last updated at  01:58:03 GMT

 SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported today that steel import permit applications for the month of June this year totaled 3,065,000 net tons (NT). The permit tons witnessed a decline of 13% from the 3,522,000 net tons (NT) recorded during May ’15 and 14% down from May ’15 final imports of 3,398,000 NT.

Year-to-date (YTD) total and finished steel imports are 21,685,000 and 17,751,000 net tons (NT), respectively, up 3% and 14% respectively, vs. the same period in 2014. Finished steel import market share was an estimated 27% in June.

Key finished steel products with a significant import increase in June compared to May are wire rods (up 16%) and plates in coils (up 14%).

The major products that recorded significant rise in import volumes year-to-date in comparison with the similar six-month period in 2014 are line pipe (up 62%), reinforcing bars (up 41%), standard pipe (up 38%), plates in coils (up 30%), tin plate (up 23%), heavy structural shapes (up 23%), sheets and strip galvanized hot dipped (up 21%), cut lengths plates (up 20%) and cold rolled sheets (up 15%).

ALSO SEE Scrap Steel Price List

In June, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (302,000 NT, down 15% from May final), Japan (201,000 NT up 8%), Turkey (182,000 NT, down 19%), China (178,000, down 41%) and Germany (152,000 NT, up 16%).

The largest offshore suppliers for the initial six-month period of the year were South Korea (3,047,000 NT, up 17% from the same period in 2014), Turkey (1,629,000 NT, up 69%) and China (1,507,000, down 1%).

Courtesy: American Iron and Steel Institute