Steel Products Prices North America
April 24, 2014
Preliminary Census Data Has March Imports at 3.2 Million Tons
Written by Brett Linton
The U.S. Department of Commerce released preliminary steel import census data for March and reported total steel imports at 3,218,914 net tons (NT). Compared to February, March imports are down by 2.0 percent or 66,960 NT. Compared to the same month one year ago, total March 2014 imports are up 25.2 percent or 648,510 NT. As we have mentioned on numerous occasions, license data and projections from license data can be misleading and one should use that data as a way of identifying a trend but not a final number. The license data has been suggesting March imports would be 3.5 million tons instead of the just reported 3,218,914 net tons.
Slab imports fell 22.0 percent or 219,550 NT from February to March, but were up 56.6 percent over figures from the same month one year ago. As an aside, SMU is hearing that the biggest importers of slab are AM/NS Calvert, California Steel, NLMK USA and AK Steel.
