Economy
July 11, 2014
Net Imports of Sheet Products through May 2014
Written by Peter Wright
The supply of all steel products in the 3 months March through May 2014 was up by 10.0 percent from the same period last year. Flat rolled was up by 11.6 percent and sheet products by 11.5 percent. The sources of this analysis are the Commerce Department trade statistics and AISI steel shipment data.
The bad news is that imports of all flat rolled products were up by 61.9 percent and of sheet products by 61.8 percent y/y. On a tonnage basis flat rolled supply in March through May y/y was up by 1,887,187 tons of which imports ate up 1,427,115 tons. Sheet supply, (hot rolled + cold rolled + coated) was up by 1,502,864 tons and the increase in imports was 908,558 tons meaning that imports ate up 60.5 percent of the increase.
