US July steel imports decrease from June

US July steel imports decrease from June

In July, US steel imports fell from June, but were up strongly from a year earlier, according to the preliminary data released by the US Commerce Department. US July steel imports dropped by 11.3% to 2.7 million mts from 3.05 million mts recorded in June. However, July imports surged by 43.5% compared to 1.88 million mts registered in July 2003. July tonnage includes 2.3 million mts of finished steel with a 4% drop compared to the previous month. In the first seven months of the year, total imports increased by 32.5% to 16.8 million mts from 12.7 million mts recorded in the same period of last year. Cumulative finished steel imports were also up by 33% from a year earlier. From June to July, the change in steel imports reflects decreases in blooms, billets and slabs. Monthly changes in steel imports indicate decreases from Brazil, Russia and Canada. In the first six months of 2004, steel imports reached 14.1 million mts against 10.8 million mts recorded in the corresponding period of last year. The largest commodity increases were in blooms, billets, slabs, wire rods and reinforcing bars. The largest country exporters to the US were Brazil, Russia, Turkey and Mexico. The data marks that Turkey has exported 216'817 mts of finished steel to the US in July. This pace was 0.8% higher compared to June. Major import quantities of finished steel into US appear to be coming from EU, Canada, Turkey, Mexico and China.