Overseas
April 22, 2022
CRU: High Raw Material Costs Continue to Support US Pricing
Written by Alexandra Anderson
By CRU Prices Analyst Alexandra Anderson, from CRU’s Steel Monitor, April 21
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Overseas
April 22, 2022
Written by Alexandra Anderson
By CRU Prices Analyst Alexandra Anderson, from CRU’s Steel Monitor, April 21
Request more information about this topic.
During the first three quarters of 2026, finished steel imports from South Korea increased 50.8% compared with the same period in 2025. Imports from Vietnam increased 23.4%, imports from Turkey increased 49.5%, and imports from India increased 29.5%. Those are not marginal increases. They are substantial import surges, especially in a US market where apparent domestic consumption has bounced around but has not grown since 2017. More importantly, these import surges are arriving at lower average unit values (AUVs).
Commerce is amending the anti-dumping duties on corrosion-resistant steel products from Taiwan. The agency is currently conducting an annual administrative review of the AD order. It is considering the year ended June 30, 2024. In its preliminary results, Commerce set weighted-average dumping margins of 3.54% for Prosperity Tieh Enterprises, 20.73% for Sheng Yu Steel Co., and 5.92% for Great Grandeul Steel Co. (Samoa).
The US Department of Commerce has adjusted anti-dumping duties on imports of hot-rolled flat steel products from Japan. The adjustment has lowered duties for one company but raised them for others. Commerce made the adjustments in the final results of an administrative review of the year ended Sept. 30, 2024. The agency set a final weighted-average dumping margin of 13.96% for Nippon Steel companies. This is lower than the company’s previous rate of 29.7%.
Base metals had a mixed week. Tin lost almost 4% on the week, finishing at $53,000/ton. Prices dropped to a low of $51,259/ton at one point. Aluminum was another loser, off by about 1.6% on the week. Investors are expecting more aluminum supply going forward, especially out of China and Indonesia. Copper prices tacked on 1.1%. They have now recovered more than half of the $700/ton loss sustained (over the course of a week) following reports/rumors in mid-September that US tariffs on refined copper imports might not proceed after all.
The World Steel Association (worldsteel) forecasts flat steel demand in 2026, as contraction in China and disruption in the Gulf region offset growth in India and other markets, including the US. Global demand is expected to rise slightly in 2027. The Brussels-based association’s Short Range Outlook (SRO) for 2026 pegs global steel demand at 1,722 million metric tons (mt), essentially unchanged from 2025. For 2027, worldsteel forecasts 1.7% growth to 1,752 million mt. “The trajectory we set out in April holds, but the anticipated recovery is proving slower and more gradual than we had expected,” commented Alfonso Hidalgo de Calcerrada, chair of the worldsteel Economics Committee. “Global steel demand is now forecast to be flat in 2026 rather than to grow modestly, and to grow by 1.7% in 2027 rather than 2.2%. Almost the whole of that revision is a China story,” Calcerrada added.