The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) has reported that the USA imported a total of 3.01Mt (net tons) of steel in August 2015, including 2.43Mt (net tons) of finished steel (down 8.2% and 6.7%, respectively, when compared with July figures).
The year-to-date (YTD) figure for the first eight months of 2015 was 28Mt (net tons) of total steel imports and 23Mt (net tons) of finished steel – down 2% and up 7% respectively compared with the same period in 2014.
The annualised total and finished steel imports in 2015 would be 42.0Mt (net tons) and 34.4Mt (net tons), down 5% and up 2% respectively compared with 2014.
Finished steel import market share was an estimated 26% in August and is estimated at 31% YTD.
Key finished steel products with a significant import increase in August compared to July are wire rods (up 45%), hot rolled sheets (up 29%), oil country goods (up 15%) and standard pipe (up 14%). Major products with significant YTD import increases versus the same period last year include rebar (up 51%), line pipe (up 40%), standard pipe (up 30%), sheets and strip hot dipped galvanised (up 19%), tin plate (up 17%), wire drawn (up 11%), cold rolled sheets (up 11%) and plates in coils (up 10%).
In August, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (303,000 net tons, down 1% compared with July), Japan (215,000 net tons, up 20%), Brazil (211,000 net tons, up 124%), China (157,000 net tons, down 45%) and Turkey (153,000 net tons, down 41%). For eight months of 2015, the largest offshore suppliers were South Korea (3.6Mt (net tons) up 1%), Turkey (2.02Mt (net tons) up 55%), China (1.9Mt (net tons) down 3%), Japan (1.6Mt (net tons) up 20%) and Germany (1.05Mt (net tons) up 34%).