Economy

Commerce Develops New Tool to Monitor Steel Trade
Written by Tim Triplett
September 11, 2018
The Commerce Department has developed a new tool that makes it easier to track steel trade flows. The Global Steel Trade Monitor, available here, provides extensive and timely steel trade data for the top 20 global steel importing countries and top 20 global steel exporting countries.
“Timely detailed data in user-friendly formats are essential both for enforcement and for policy determinations,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. “This interactive Global Steel Trade Monitor will strengthen U.S. companies’ and the U.S. government’s ability to track trade flows to better understand the relevant trends in this essential sector.”
The new tool gives users the flexibility to select online customized import and export flows in intuitive graphic form and detailed charts for five aggregate steel mill product groups: flat, long, pipe and tube, semi-finished, and stainless products. The tool can produce more than 20,000 charts, which will be updated more frequently than the current comprehensive country reports, Commerce said.
The monitor improves upon the Global Steel Monitor Country-Specific Reports that the department began publishing in 2016.

Tim Triplett
Read more from Tim TriplettLatest in Economy

President Trump intends to set additional steel tariffs
While boarding Airforce One on Friday, US President Donald Trump stated that he would be setting more steel tariffs and putting ~100% tariffs on semiconductors and chips.

Hot-rolled spot market conditions linger, prices slip
Market participants said they have high hopes that the stable hot-rolled spot market will improve as the year rolls on.

Dodge Momentum Index surges in July
The Dodge Momentum Index (DMI) jumped 20.8% in July and is now up 27% year-to-date, according to the latest data released by Dodge Construction Network.

ISM: Manufacturing growth slows in July, hits 10-month low
US manufacturing activity slowed again in July to a 10-month low

CRU: Pushing EU imports back to 15% would be a big task
Several EU member states have published a ‘non-paper’ that puts forward proposals for a post-safeguard trade measure.