Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported Friday that the US imported a total of 3,016,000 net tons (nt) of steel in August 2015, including 2,439,000 net tons (nt) of finished steel (down 8.2 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively, vs. July final data).
Year-to-date (YTD) through eight months of 2015 total and finished steel imports are 28,023,000 and 22,915,000 net tons (nt), respectively, down 2 percent and up 7 percent respectively, vs. the same period in 2014. Annualized total and finished steel imports in 2015 would be 42.0 and 34.4 million nt, down 5 percent and up 2 percent respectively vs. 2014.
Finished steel import market share was an estimated 26 percent in August and is estimated at 31 percent YTD. Key finished steel products with a significant import increase in August compared to July are wire rods (up 45 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 29 percent), oil country goods (up 15 percent) and standard pipe (up 14 percent). Major products with significant YTD import increases vs. the same period last year include reinforcing bars (up 51 percent), line pipe (up 40 percent), standard pipe (up 30 percent), sheets and strip hot dipped galvanized (up 19 percent), tin plate (up 17 percent), wire drawn (up 11 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 11 percent) and plates in coils (up 10 percent).
In August, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (303,000 nt, down 1 percent vs. July final), Japan (215,000 nt,up 20 percent), Brazil (211,000 nt, up 124 percent),China (157,000 nt, down 45 percent) and Turkey (153,000 nt, down 41 percent). For eight months of 2015, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (3,670,000 nt, up 1 percent), Turkey (2,020,000 nt, up 55 percent), China (1,961,000 nt, down 3 percent), Japan (1,626,000 nt, up 20 percent) and Germany (1,052,000 nt, up 34 percent).