Licenses to import steel tumble in June

Monthly declines were seen in all major product categories: June licenses for flat-rolled products dropped 18% from May, pipe and tube products fell 12%, long products tumbled 26%, and stainless licenses were down 8%.

While June licenses for most major flat-rolled products declined from May, licenses to import hot rolled increased 7% to 171,670 st on higher shipments from Japan.

Galvanized sheet licenses fell 14% from a 26-month high in May to 259,240 st in June – a level comparable to April’s import total. While licenses declined from the top three foreign sources of galv – Canada, Mexico, and Vietnam – hot-dipped galvanized (HDG) license applications increased from Brazil, South Korea, and UAE.

Licenses to import cold-rolled sheet dropped by more than a third from May to a seven-month low of 104,680 st in June. CR licenses were down noticeably from Mexico, Australia, Vietnam, and Taiwan.

Other metallic-coated sheet imports have been above 100,000 st every month so far this year, with June import licenses totaling 135,370 st. While total licenses declined 9% from May, licenses were higher for product from Vietnam, Brazil, and Australia.

Plate imports declined notably in June. Coiled plate licenses of 82,610 st were at a four-month low, while cut-to-length plate licenses of 35,650 st were at their lowest level since December 2022.

Table 1 below details import levels over the last three months by product and shows the three- and 12-month moving averages for comparison.