US steel imports see monthly increase
Based on the preliminary data released by the US Commerce Department, the country imported 2.3 million metric tons of steel in March, including 1.8 million metric tons of finished steel. Total and finished steel imports in March rose 2% and 10.2% respectively from February 2005. Several key products such as plates in coils (56%), tin plate (49%), hot rolled sheet (27%), galvanized sheet/strip (18%) and cold rolled sheet (17%) saw an increase in March. Year-to-date total and finished steel imports were up 19.9% and 19.7% respectively compared to the same period last year. The year to date final statistics through February 2005 showed steel imports totaled 4.7 million metric tons, an increase of 800'000 metric tons from the 3.9 million metric tons through February 2004. The largest commodity increases were in blooms, billets, slabs, hot dipped galvanized sheets and strip, cold rolled sheets and hot rolled sheets. China, Egypt, Taiwan and Russia led the way in exports to the US. The data show that Turkey exported 33'565 metric tons of finished steel to the US in March 2005. This pace is 80.7% lower than January 2005. Major import quantities of finished steel appear to be coming from Canada, EU, Russia, Mexico and Japan.