Just-released preliminary census bureau data show that the US imported a total of 2,451,000 nt of steel in May 2008, reflecting a decrease of 18 percent from the country's import total for April.
Steel imports to the US for the first five months of the year totaled 13,151,137 mt, down 11 percent from the amount of steel imported in the first five months of 2007.
The category of finished product imports which showed the largest decrease YTD May 2008 compared to the same period of 2007 was "Sheets & Strip All Other", at minus 43.5 percent.
Import products which bucked the downward trend included OCTG (up 17 percent YTD May 2008 from the same period of the previous year) and line pipe (up 16 percent).