US steel imports down by 34.1% in November

US steel imports down by 34.1% in November

The US government published preliminary steel import figures for November 2003. Based on this data, it is seen that Us imports decreased by 34..1% from the same month a year ago. US November steel imports fell to 1.7 million mts from 2.5 million mts recorded in November 2002. The steel imports also dropped by 3.6% from the previous month's figures. This November tonnage includes 1.2 million mts of finished steel with a 11.5% decrease. As per the 2003 year-to-date results, with 15.23 million mts of finished steel imports, US' steel imports totaled 19.26 million mts. US recorded a decrease by 22.2% in finished steel imports and 28.8% in total imports, when compared to the same period last year. From October to November, the change in steel imports is due to decrease seen in blooms, billets and slabs, basically from Brazil, Mexico and Korea. The Jan-Oct 2003 final figures revelaed that US imported 17.7 million mts of steel which was decreased by 6.8 million mts from the 24.5 million mts recorded in the same period last year. The largest commodity decreases were in imports of blooms, billets, slabs, wire rods and hot rolled sheets. In addition, the largest country decreases were seen in imports from Brazil, Russia, Mexico and Japan. According to the data, Turkey has exported 45'360 mts of finished steel to the US in November. This quantity was 49.1% lower compared to the same period last year. Major import quantities of finished steel into US appear to be coming from Canada, EU, Mexico, Korea and Japan.