Finished Steel Imports Down Compared to 12MMA and 3MMA

The U.S. Department of Commerce released Final Census Data today for July steel imports. The final number for July was 2,987,565 net tons. This is approximately 500,000 net tons more than June of this year. It was close to the 12-month moving average and slightly higher than the 3-month moving average (see table below).

At the same time, the DOC updated the August license data. SMU has August at almost exactly the same tonnage as July at 2.9 million net tons (net tons, not metric tons). However, when diving more deeply into the numbers, we see a rising trend in semi-finished steels (mostly slabs and all bought by steel mills). In June, semi’s accounted for 625,000 net tons, in July 791,000 net tons, and August is trending toward 950,000 net tons. Looking at finished steels, August numbers dropped compared to July at just over 2 million net tons.