Apparent Steel Supply at 9 Million Tons in February

Apparent steel supply for February was 9,002,702 net tons, an 8.5 percent increase compared to the same month one year ago. This is due to an increase in finished imports and domestic shipments but a decrease in total US exports. The net trade balance between imports and exports was a surplus of 2,381,742 net tons in February, an increase of 61.9 percent from the same month last year. Import penetration continues to be of concern to the domestic steel industry as their percentage of apparent steel supply has been rising and now exceeds 25 percent (2013 average was 23.2 percent).