Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported Tuesday that the United States imported 13 percent more steel in January 2009 than in December 2008.
The US imported a total of 2,343,000 net tons (nt) of steel in January, including 2,134,000 nt of finished steel (up 13 percent and 15 percent, respectively, vs. December data). However, the January 2009 steel import totals reflected decreases from January 2008, which saw total steel imports of 2,660,000 nt and finished steel imports of 2,200,000 nt.
Products with significant increases in January 2009 compared to December include rebar (up 295 percent), heavy structural shapes (up 136 percent), sheet and strip -all other metallic coated (up 112 percent), cold rolled sheet (up 52 percent), cut length plates (up 43 percent) and line pipe (up 25 percent).
In January, the largest volume of finished imports from offshore was from China (435,000 nt, down 10 percent from December). Other major offshore suppliers in January were South Korea (295,000 nt, up 130 percent from December), Japan (147,000 nt, up 28 percent), Turkey (112,000 nt, up 55 percent), Germany (93,000 nt, up 12 percent), and India (80,000 nt, down 35 percent).