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    January 27, 2015

    Foreign Steel Imports Continue Record Breaking Pace

    Written by John Packard

    AK Steel and Nucor spend time on their earnings conference calls earlier today to point out the negative impact imports were having on their business and steel pricing. James Wainscott talked about imports during his opening statements, “Between 2013 and 2014 flat-rolled finished carbon steel imports rose by some 60%. For the year, we saw more than 11 million net tons of flat-rolled carbon steel imports compared to less than 7 million tons in the prior year. To put that into perspective, it’s the equivalent of having a new 4 million-ton steel mill appear roughly overnight in the domestic carbon steel market. The increased supply has had a negative impact on pricing in the domestic market, especially in the spot market. In fact, it’s put undue pressure on carbon prices and we experienced a bigger price decline than we expected in the fourth quarter of 2014 as a result. It’s off this low base that we embark for 2015.”

    Late this afternoon, the U.S. Department of Commerce released Preliminary Census Data for December 2014 and updated the license data for the month of January 2015.

    John Packard

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