Steel Products Prices North America

Final March Steel Imports at 3.6 Million Tons

May 5, 2015

The U.S. Department of Commerce released Final Census Data for the month of March. The final total of foreign steel imported into the United States during the month was 3,615,960 net tons. This is a very small decrease from the 3.7 million tons received during the month of February but is well below the 3.9 million tons 3 month average and 3.86 million ton 12 month average.

So far April 2015 imports appear to be headed lower based on license data as of May 5th. Our expectation is for April to be somewhere in the 3.0 to 3.4 million ton range. We remind our readers that license data is incomplete and can be somewhat misleading.

As April import numbers begin to indicate a reduction in most items the one exception may be the next trade case – cold rolled – which is the only non-semi-finished steel showing an increase compared to March numbers.

The biggest cold rolled exporting nation? China. China licenses tonnage was twice that of Canada and three times Brazil and Japan…