Steel Products Prices North America
August Import Licenses Trending Toward 2.1 Million Ton Month
Written by John Packard
September 5, 2019
As many of our trading company contacts have been telling SMU, finished steel imports have bottomed at just under 2 million short tons.
Total foreign steel imports for the month of August are forecast to be 2.1 million net tons based on license data released on Tuesday of this week. Only 275,954 net tons are semi-finished steels (mostly slabs) as Brazil, who has been supplying 63 percent of all semi-finished steels since the beginning of the year, had minimal exports of semi to the U.S. during the month due to quota restrictions.
Some interesting observations made by Steel Market Update regarding flat rolled products:
Hot Rolled – Canada accounted for 63 percent the HRC exports to the U.S. with 111,559 net tons of the 175,650 net tons of licenses being Canadian. The second largest supplier was 36,692 net tons of licenses. Third was The Netherlands with 9,295 net tons of HRC licenses.
Cold Rolled – Canada led again with 34 percent of the CRC imports. Behind Canada were Mexico, Vietnam and Australia.
Galvanized – Canada led here as well with 44 percent of the GI import licenses for the month of August. Following Canada with slightly more than 10 percent of the total was South Korea. Then came Vietnam, Taiwan and Australia.
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Steel Products Prices North America
Thin demand keeps plate prices hovering at lowest levels since February
Participants in the domestic plate market say spot prices appear to have hit the floor, and they continue to linger there. They say demand for steel remains thin, with plate products no exception.
SMU Price Ranges: HR crawls back to $800/ton
SMU’s HR price stands at $800/st on average, up $5/st from last week. The modest gain came as the low end of our range firmed, and despite the high end of our range declining slightly.
SMU successfully completes IOSCO review
SMU has successfully completed an external review of all our prices. The review has concluded that they algin with principles set by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).
Domestic plate prices could heat up despite so-so demand, market sources say
Some sources also speculated that plate could see further price increases thanks to modest but steady demand, lower imports, mill maintenance outages, and end markets less immediately affected by tariff-related disruptions.
SMU Price Ranges: HR holds, galv slips amid competing market narratives
SMU’s sheet and plate prices see-sawed this week as hot-rolled (HR) coil prices held their ground while prices for galvanized product slipped.