Premium Flat, Long & Semi-Finished Import Analysis

The following is a report which is normally provided to only our Premium Level members. It is a detailed analysis of flat rolled, long products and semi-finished imports through the month of March 2014. Written by Peter Wright, we analyze how accurate license data is and provide a table using three month moving averages to correctly pick up the trend by product. If you are interested in this type of report you may want to consider becoming a Premium Level member.

Long, flat and semi-finished imports through March 2014. Licensed data for March was updated on April 1st after which the Commerce Department began to report April volume through the Steel Import Monitoring system. The first tonnage for April was released on April 3rd. The SMU publishes several import reports ranging from this very early look using licensed data to the very detailed analysis of final volumes by district of entry and source nation. The early looks, the latest of which you are reading now have been based on three month moving averages, (3MMA) using for example March licensed data, February preliminary data and January final data. Our belief was that this would dilute any inaccuracies in the licensed data and give the best early look at import volume in the first few days of the next month.