Final September Imports Decline Further

Final Commerce data shows steel imports totaled 1.26 million net tons in September, surpassing last month’s low by 33,000 tons. September imports are now at the lowest levels seen in 11 years, with the previous low occuring in September 2009 at 1.21 million tons. Recall that the lowest monthly import level in the past two decades occured in June 2009 at 862,000 tons.

The U.S. International Trade Administration recently updated its Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) System and now includes more detailed import information. Their below graphic shows recent monthly steel imports by product category. Note that this data is presented in metric tons, not net tons as SMU normally reports import data. SMU plans to expand our Executive level imports analysis in the coming weeks to include these expanded product categories.