The US Census Bureau reported Wednesday that preliminary steel imports were 2.4 million metric tons (mt) in June, totaling $2.9 billion--up $0.1 billion from preliminary May totals of $2.8 billion. Metric tonnage arriving in June compared to May was virtually unchanged. However, there was a notable decrease in semi-finished steel imports of blooms, billets and slabs, due to a decline in import from Brazil.
Year-to-date final import data (through May 2011) showed a total of 10.8 million mt of steel imports compared with 8.8 million mt over the same period in 2010. Overall, the largest product increases were blooms, billets and slabs, and oil country goods, and the largest country increases were primarily with Brazil and Korea; the largest country decrease was steel imports from Canada.