Prices
February 10, 2015
2014 Apparent Steel Supply Up 11.5% Over 2013
Written by Brett Linton
Apparent steel supply for the month of December 2014 was 10,020,704 net tons, the sixth month in 2014 to be above the 10 million ton mark. Steel Market Update calculates our apparent steel supply figure by combining total domestic steel shipments with finished US steel imports and subtracting total US steel exports.
December supply represents a 1,358,492 ton or 15.7 percent increase compared to the same month one year ago. This is primarily due to the massive spike in 2014 imports, with total December imports up 45.1 percent or 1,130,767 tons over December 2013 tonnage. When separated into to finished imports, there was a 56.3 percent or 1,070,143 ton increase compared to the same month one year ago. Domestic shipments and total exports also increased over levels one year prior, up 4.5 and 6.6 percent respectively. The net trade balance between imports and exports was a surplus of 2,708,846 tons in December, an increase of 65.6 percent from the same month last year.
