Posted on 27 Jun 2019
The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. total and finished steel imports declined drastically over the previous month in May this year. The combined total and finished steel imports during the first five months of 2019 too dropped significantly over the previous year.
According to AISI data, the finished steel market share was estimated at 19% in May 2019 and at 21% over the first five months of the year.
The U.S. imported a total of 2.062 million net tons (NT) of steel during May this year, which is significantly lower by more than 38% when compared with the April ’19 final imports. Out of this, finished steel imports totaled 1.853 million NT. The finished steel imports recorded nearly 9.3% decline over the previous month. The total and finished steel imports had totaled 3.337 million NT and 2.044 million NT respectively in April this year.
The combined total steel imports during Jan-May ’19 amounted to 13.584 million NT, down by 11.7% over the previous year. Also, the year-to-date finished steel imports dropped by just over 18% to 9.953 million NT. The total and finished steel imports in Jan-May ’18 had totaled 15.389 million NT and 12.157 million NT respectively.
Imports of hot rolled sheets declined the most in May ‘19, registering a fall of 27% over the previous year. The other products to witness notable decline in imports were hot rolled bars and cold rolled sheets, whose import volumes declined by 20.7% and 17.9% respectively. On the contrary, the imports of reinforcing bars witnessed a surge of 18% when matched with the year before month.
