January steel imports up 16 percent

Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the United States imported a total of 1,634,000 net tons (NT) of steel in January, including 1,257,000 NT of finished steel (up 16 percent and 11 percent, respectively, vs. December final data).

Total imports were highest monthly amount since January 2009. Finished imports recorded their highest amount since March of 2009. Finished steel import market share was an estimated 18 percent in January, which is around 3 percentage points higher than in August 2009.

Key finished steel products with increases in January 2010 compared to December include oil country goods (103 percent), heavy structural shapes (40 percent), plates in coils (30 percent) and sheets & strip hot dipped galvanized (26 percent).

In January, the largest volumes of finished steel imports from offshore were from South Korea (150,000 NT, up 45 percent), Japan (78,000 NT, down 24 percent), China (66,000 NT, up 40 percent), Italy (48,000 NT, down 2 percent) and Germany (37,000 NT, down 13 percent).