The value of hot-rolled coil (HRC) imports decreased for the 10th consecutive month in January, declining 12.9 percent, year-over-year, to $226 million. That value is in the range of imports in the last 12 months ($205 million), according to a SteelOrbis analysis of data from national statistics agency Inegi.
Since April of last year, the value of imports has been declining; although three months ago it began a process of deceleration. The annual variation in November was 41.1 percent, in December the drop was 15.9 percent, and the drop in January 2023 was 12.9 percent.
The value of HRC exports in January decreased 76.9 percent, year-over-year, to $24.0 million, the lowest amount since September 2021. The 76.9 percent drop is explained because in January 2022, exports increased more than 18,000 percent, going from $566,000 in January 2021 to $104 million.
HRC's Mexico trade flow totaled $250 million, down 31.2 percent. Imports contributed 90.4 percent of that total and the remaining 9.6 percent came from exports. The balance of the HRC trade balance registered a deficit for Mexico of $202 million, 29.9 percent more than in January 2022.