[All figures expressed in this article are net tons]: Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported today that the USA imported a total of 2.42Mt of steel in January 2021, including 1.23Mt of finished steel (down 23.1% and 24.8%, respectively, compared with January 2020). Total and finished steel imports are up 62.2% and down 7.5%, respectively, compared with the previous month, December 2020. Finished steel import market share was an estimated 15% in January 2021.
Key finished steel products with a significant import increase in January compared to December are reinforcing bars (up 121%), heavy structural shapes (up 115%), sheets and strip all other metallic coatings (up 20%), structural pipe and tubing (up 29%) and mechanical tubing (up 12%).
In January, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (131kt), down 41% from December final), Turkey (82kt, up 498%), Japan (46kt, down 17%), Brazil (42kt, up 8%) and United Arab Emirates (31kt, up 152%). Below are charts on estimated steel import market share in recent months and on finished steel imports from offshore by country.