Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI)reported Friday that the US imported a total of 3,588,000 net tons (nt) of steel in March 2015, including 3,159,000 net tons (nt) of finished steel (down 3.3 percent and up 8.6 percent, respectively, vs. February final data).
Year-to-date (YTD) total and finished steel imports are 11,693,000 and 9,640,000 net tons (nt), respectively, up 20 percent and 35 percent respectively, vs. the same period in 2014. Annualized total and finished steel imports in 2015 would be 46.8 million and 38.6 million nt, up 6 percent and 14 percent respectively vs. 2014. Finished steel import market share was an estimated 34 percent in March and is estimated at 34 percent YTD.
Key finished steel products with a significant import increase in March compared to February are sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 74 percent), reinforcing bars (up 65 percent), tin plate (up 38 percent), wire drawn (up 37 percent), line pipe (up 34 percent), hot rolled bars (up 25 percent), sheets and strip galvanized hot dipped (up 21 percent) and standard pipe (up 13 percent).
Major products with significant YTD import increases vs. the same period last year include line pipe (up 107 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 87 percent), cut lengths plates (up 78 percent), standard pipe (up 50 percent), plates-in-coils (up 48 percent), cold rolled sheets (up 43 percent),tin plate (up 39 percent), oil country goods (up 33 percent), sheets and strip galvanized hot dipped (up 32 percent), reinforcing bars (up 22 percent), hot rolled sheets (up 19 percent) and sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 13 percent).
In March, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (561,000 nt, up 17 percent vs. February final), Turkey (392,000 nt, up 36 percent), China (272,000 nt, up 3 percent), Japan (179,000 nt, down 16 percent) and Taiwan (168,000 nt, up 61 percent). For three months of 2015, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (1,879,000 nt, up 61 percent), Turkey (980,000 nt, up 109 percent), China (735,000 nt, up 30 percent), Japan (633,000 nt, up 27 percent)
and Germany (422,000 nt, up 52 percent).