US steel imports keep increasing in April

US steel imports keep increasing in April

In April, US steel imports advanced from March and were up strongly from a year before, according to the preliminary data released by US Commerce Department. US April steel imports rose by 0.3% to 2.21 million mts from 2.2 million mts recorded in March. Furthermore, April steel imports jumped by 33% from 1.66 million mts in the same period of last year. This April tonnage includes 1.9 million mts of finished steel with a 5.7% rise compared to March 2004. In January-April 2004 period, total and finished steel imports were up by 11.1% and 9.7% respectively compared to the same period of last year. In the first three months of this year, imports rose by 4.2% to 6.12 million mts from 5.87 million in the corresponding period of 2003. From March to April, the change in steel imports reflects increases in reinforcing bars, plates in coils and standard pipe. Decreases occurred in imports of blooms, billets, slabs and wire rods. Monthly changes in steel imports reflect increases from Russia and Turkey. In April, US had fewer imports from Brazil and Australia. In the first quarter of 2004, the largest commodity increases were in wire rods, blooms, billets and slabs. The largest country exporters to the US were Mexico, Germany, Canada and Brazil. According to the data, Turkey has exported 232'240 mts of finished steel to the US in April. This quantity was 118.8% higher compared to March. Major import quantities of finished steel into US appear to be coming from Canada, EU, Turkey, Mexico and Japan.