Foreign Imports: Semifinished Way Down in August, as Expected

Halfway through the month of August, steel import license data is trending down considerably, as expected following a big bump in July. Taking the rate of license requests and extrapolating it out for the entire month, August is on track to see less than 2.1 million tons of total steel imports, down from nearly 3.6 million tons in July.

The major difference is licenses for semifinished steel. Domestic mills were quick to secure licenses for imported slabs in July, which was the first month of the third quarter. Semifinished imports from certain countries, notably Brazil, are subject to quarterly quota limits. July semifinished licenses totaled an unusually high 1.6 million tons. For August, that figure has corrected back down to just 113,000 tons.