Finished Steel Imports Trend Down in January

Finished steel imports into the United States are trending down a bit in January, compared with December imports and the 12-month moving average. Based on Commerce Department import license applications in the first two weeks of January, the U.S. is on track to import around 1.47 million tons of finished steel this month. That’s roughly in line with the monthly average for the 2019 fourth quarter of 1.46 million tons, but well below the annual average at 1.79 million tons, which includes higher finished steel imports in some months last year.

Steel Market Update is unable to project semifinished imports using license data as in the past, as tariffs and import quotas skew the results. Through Jan. 14, import licenses for semifinished material, including slabs purchased by domestic steelmakers, totaled nearly 1.3 million tons. That figure is unusually high, as January is the first month of the quarter and buyers are seeking to max out the quarterly quotas. Semifinished totals for February and March will undoubtedly be much smaller and will average out over Q1, thus bringing the monthly averages for both semifinished and total imports more in line with the last quarter.