Steel Products Prices North America

Foreign Steel Imports Trending Down in June

June 20, 2018

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported foreign steel import license data for the first 19 days of June. The data is indicating to Steel Market Update a significant drop in imported foreign steel. Taking the daily license rate and spreading it across the 30 days of June, we see the month trending toward 2.4 million net tons. This would be 600,000 net tons lower than the prior month (May 2018) and 1.3 million tons less than what was reported for April 2018.

We are seeing significant drops in tonnage on oil country tubular goods (OCTG), hot rolled, coiled plate, cold rolled and cut-to-length plate. The two products of concern are galvanized, which is showing growth over May license data, and Galvalume, which has also increased market share compared to the previous month.

Semi-finished (slabs) continue close to the 12-month moving average.

Finished steels (total less semi’s) are running 700,000 net tons below last month’s rate.

Brett Linton

Brett Linton is a digital operations analyst for Steel Market Update, where he began his career. Linton has been in the steel industry since 2010. He has held roles as a category manager and strategic insights director at Reibus before returning to SMU in 2024. He is a graduate of The University of North Georgia with a degree in Finance and Accounting. Brett can be reached at brett@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-314-0179.