The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) announced Tuesday that based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the US imported a total of 2,107,000 nt of steel in September, including 1,589,000 nt of finished steel, down 3 percent and 6 percent respectively, from August data.
Finished steel import market share was an estimated 20 percent in September, vs. year-high 24 percent in July and a low of 15 percent in August 2009. Year-to-date, finished steel import market share is 21 percent. In the first nine months of 2010, total and finished steel imports were up 56 percent and 32 percent, respectively, compared to the same period last year.
Key finished steel products with significant import increases in September 2010 compared to August included cut length plates (up 51 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 39 percent), and cold rolled sheets (up 36 percent). Many finished steel products have registered significant year-to-date import increases in 2010 vs. the same period last year, including wire rod (up 125 percent) and hot rolled sheets (up 50 percent).
In September, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (208,000 nt, up 5 percent), Japan (113,000 nt, down 19 percent), China (101,000, up 1 percent), The Netherlands (63,000 nt, down 49 percent), and Germany (58,000, down 13 percent).
For the first nine months of 2010, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (1,491,000 nt, up 49 percent), Japan (999,000 nt, up 37 percent), and China (668,000 nt, down 49 percent).
Imports from India experienced the most significant decrease, falling 72.9 percent from August to September 2010, while The Netherlands saw the largest month-over-month increase, with imports surging 43.1 percent.