US producers complain about high imports
The US steel producers believe that the safeguard measures implemented by the Bush administration were necessary for the purpose of protecting the domestic steel industry. These measures should be applied and followed strictly for immediate recovery of the steel industry. The general opinion is that the current ongoing of the product exclusion process has a negative influence on the effectiveness of the application of these measures. Furthermore producers believe that these measures implemented for the purpose of protecting the U.S domestic steel industry are not harsh enough as figures show that amount of imports are still higher than last year's figures. The year to date tonnage for 2001 imports into the US are reported to be 7.481mio net tons for finished products and 9.449 mio net tons for total whereas the year 2002 finished imports are reported to be 7.331 mio net tons and 10.104 mio net tons for total. Moreover, the producers claim that there is not enough level of increase on the average import custom values as desired based on the following data published by AISI.
AVERAGE IMPORT CUSTOMS VALUE PER NET TON
Product Price($) Price($) Change
April 2002 85-97/13 yr avr. (%)
Wire Rods $254 $367 -30.9%
Stuctural Shapes $324 $345 -6.0%
Plates in coils $281 $420 -33.0%
Bars - Hot Rolled $385 $467 -17.5%
Bars - Light Shapes $419 $454 -7.6%
Reinforcing Bars $190 $251 -24.2%
Wire Drawn $720 $829 -13.2%
Tin Plate $535 $581 -8.0%
Sheets - Hot Rolled $259 $316 -18.0%
Sheet&Strip-HotDip.Galv.$459 $519 -11.5%
Strip - Hot Rolled $349 $456 -23.5%