SMU Data and Models

Drill Down of Cold Rolled Imports into Product Detail Through February 2020

Written by Peter Wright

April 15, 2020

Using International Trade Commission (USITC) data, Steel Market Update has taken the import tonnage of cold rolled sheet and broken it down into coil and leveled, into four thickness ranges, and identifies how much was full hard, annealed and high strength.

This update examines the total cold rolled sheet and strip imports into the U.S. for 2020 through February by month. Year to date, only 3.2 percent was strip. By gauge range, sheet breaks down to: 24.8 percent < 0.5mm, 35.6 percent ≥ 0.5 to 1.0 mm, 39.2 percent > 1 to 3mm thick and 0.4 percent > 3 mm.

Table 1 is a detailed summary by month and year-to-date for 2020 through February showing gauge ranges and condition for sheet. Strip is itemized separately at the bottom of the table. Both are in metric tons.

Figure 1 shows the year-to-date cold rolled sheet tonnage broken down into the four gauge ranges that are identified in the HTS codes.

Figure 2 does the same for condition. It identifies the volume of full hard, annealed, high strength and high strength annealed. Year to date through February, 43.8 percent was full hard, 41.3 percent was annealed, 5.8 percent was high strength and 9.1 percent was high strength annealed.

Note: This data was accessed through the USITC database. All steel traded globally is classified by the Harmonized Tariff System (HTS). The HTS code has 10 digits. The first six are globally universal. The last four are used at the discretion of the nations involved in a particular transaction and are the basis of this report. The way the U.S. uses the last four digits to define products may be different from other nations’ product classification.

Peter Wright

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