US imports continue to decline in May

US imports continue to decline in May

As per the latest data released by the US government, steel imports into the US in the month of May fell 1.2% from the last year same month figures. Accordingly, the steel imports decreased by 1.7 million metric tons from 1.72 million metric tons imported in May 2002. The total imported steel tonnage in the first four months of the year equals to 7.53 million metric tons, 18.7% down from the 9.26 million metric tons of 2002 same period. The report released by the government emphasizes that the steel safeguard remedies brought into effect by the Bush administration in March 2002 are showing their effects on the steel imports. At the same time, the preliminary May import figures point out to an increase by 2.3% over the imported quantity of 1.66 million metric tons in April 2003. This increase is in close relation to the rise seen particularly in blooms, billets and slabs, basically from Australia, Spain and Turkey. According to the US Department of Commerce, during the period from January through to April, largest commodity decreases over the same period of 2002 were observed in the imports of blooms, billets, slabs and rebars primarily from Brazil, Russia and Japan. There is a dispute between different communities in the US with regard to the S201 safeguard measures brought by the Bush administration into force in March 2002 as the steel consumers in the country such as automotive suppliers and other manufacturers are pushing for this program to end immediately as they believe that same causes massive job losses in the manufacturing industry. Furthermore, there is a WTO ruling against these measures, as they are declared illegal. The US has appealed this decision and currently the final WTO ruling is awaited.