Steel Products Prices North America
January Foreign Steel Imports Trending Up
Written by Brett Linton
January 16, 2018
The U.S. Department of Commerce released import license data earlier today, which indicates that January steel imports are trending slightly higher than December’s 2,475,249 tons. Right now, based on the first 16 days of data, January is trending toward a 2.5 million to 2.7 million net ton month.
Semi-finished imports (slabs/billets), which are purchased by the domestic steel mills, are significantly lower, trending toward fewer than 400,000 net tons.
Oil country tubular goods (OCTG) are much higher. However, the items Steel Market Update watches on a regular basis (shown below) are trending lower.
Hot rolled is trending toward 160,000 tons, cold rolled 120,000 tons, galvanized just over 200,000 tons and plate products (cut and coil) 125,000 tons.
The one item that is growing is Galvalume (other metallic), which came in below 40,000 tons in December and is now trending up to over 100,000 net tons in January.
Brett Linton
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