US March steel imports up from February and year ago
Based on the preliminary data released by US Commerce Department, US steel imports in March rose from February and also were up from previous year's results. Accordingly, it is seen that US steel imports increased by 5.5% from the same month a year ago. US March steel imports surged to 2.2 million mts from 2.1 million mts recorded in March 2003. Furthermore, steel imports increased by 22.4% from the previous month's figures. This March tonnage includes 1.7 million mts of finished steel with a 24% increase compared to February 2004. In January-March 2004 period, total and finished steel imports were up by 4.2% and 1% respectively compared to the same period of last year. From February to March, the change in steel imports is due to increase seen in wire rods, blooms, billets, slabs, galvanized and hot dipped sheet, strip and hot rolled sheets, basically from India, Canada and Brazil. According to data, Turkey has exported 106'140 mts of finished steel to the US in March. This quantity was 69.6% higher compared to February. Major import quantities of finished steel into US appear to be coming from Canada, EU, Mexico, Turkey and Korea.