Steel Products Prices North America

Final October Foreign Steel Imports at 3.1 Million Tons

December 7, 2017

Final October imports were reported to be 3,148,243 net tons, according to U.S. Department of Commerce data released earlier this week.

Total October imports were up 2.0 percent over September, and up 16.0 percent compared to levels one year ago.

The Commerce Department also released license data this week that now suggests foreign steel imports in November 2017 will reach 2.8 million net tons. This is about 200,000 tons greater than what the import license data was showing one week ago.

Finished steel imports (removing semi-finished imports, mostly slabs and some billets being sold to domestic producers) are coming in around 2.3 million net tons.

SMU is seeing reductions in imports of the products we follow with the one exception being coiled plate.

Based on the license data for November, imports are 300,000 tons lower than the prior month. When compared to November 2016, imports are essentially unchanged.