The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) announced Wednesday that based on preliminary US Census Bureau data, the US imported 2,446,000 net tons (nt) of steel in March (up 33 percent from February), including 1,850,000 nt of finished steel (up 29 percent from February)-bringing finished steel import market share in March to 21 percent. Finished steel import market share in Q1 was an estimated 20 percent.
A number of finished products had significant import increases in March 2011 compared to February. In particular, imports of heavy structural shapes rose 124 percent, cold rolled sheet imports jumped 75 percent, HDG sheet and strip imports totaled 44 percent, while imports of oil country goods and hot rolled sheets increased 32 and 29 percent, respectively. Oil country good and reinforcing bar imports also had major year-to-date import increases, surging 85 and 74 percent, respectively.
In March, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (229,000 nt, up 23 percent), Japan (113,000 nt, down 13 percent), Germany (96,000 nt, up 35 percent), Brazil (73,000 nt, up 734 percent) and China (67,000 nt, up 37 percent).
In Q1 2011, the largest offshore exporters of steel to the US were South Korea (630,000 nt, up 76 percent), Japan (372,000 nt, up 11 percent) and Germany (264,000 nt, up 29 percent).