US steel imports jumps in January

US steel imports jumps in January

The US government published preliminary steel import figures for January 2004. Based on this data, it is seen that US imports decreased by 8.3% from the same month a year ago. US January steel imports fell to 2.09 million mts from 2.28 million mts recorded in January 2003. However, total steel imports increased by 35% from the previous months' figures. This January tonnage includes 1.5 million mts of finished steel with a 24% increase compared to December 2003. Total steel imports recorded the highest figure since January 2003 and finished steel imports recorded the highest figure since March 2003. American Iron and Steel Institute officials stated that high prices and steel shortages affected January figures. It is also reported that rising US economic growth boosts demand for steel. From December to January, the change in steel imports is due to increase seen in blooms, billets, slabs and wire rods, basically from Brazil, Korea, Japan and Turkey. The Jan-Dec 2003 final figures revealed that US imported 21 million mts of steel which was decreased by 8.7 million mts from the 29.7 million mts recorded in 2002. The largest commodity decreases were in blooms, billets, slabs, hot rolled sheets and wire rods. In addition, the largest country decreases were in Brazil and Russia. According to the data, Turkey has exported 96'161 mts of finished steel to the US in January. This quantity was 152.4% higher compared to December 2003. Major import quantities of finished steel into US appear to be coming from Canada, EU, Mexico, Korea and Turkey.