Steel Products Prices North America
November 3, 2013
September Imports: Chinese Tonnage Growing, Koreans Still Shipping OCTG
Written by John Packard
The U.S. Department of Commerce is trying to catch up on the steel import licensing data after being affected by the government shutdown orchestrated by our representatives in Washington, D.C. The US DOC released Preliminary Census Data for September imports late last week. Imports continue to be at a high level although slightly lower than what was seen during the month of August. The 2,760,821 net tons of steel imports were 117,546 tons less than the prior month with the largest percentage of the reduction coming from oil country tubular goods (OCTG) which dropped by 111,377 tons.
When looking at flat rolled all of the areas followed by Steel Market Update (HR, CR, GI and AZ) were higher than both their twelve month and three month moving averages (12MMA & 3MMA) with the exception of Galvalume.
