Steel Products
January 14, 2013
2012 Imports Up 17%
Written by John Packard
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Commerce released final census data for the month of November and preliminary census data for the month of December. Based on that data, SMU forecast 2012 imports will be 17 percent higher than what was imported one year earlier. A large portion of those tons were imported by domestic steel mills. The domestic mills imported almost 7.5 million tons of semi-finished (mostly slabs)
When looking at flat rolled, only hot rolled did not add double digits to its import totals compared to the prior year. Flat rolled growth was led by galvanized which grew its penetration by almost 37 percent averaging 166,526 tons per month.
