Steel Products Prices North America
September 30, 2014
Steel Import License Data Suggests September Will Be Another Big Month
Written by Brett Linton
As we try to point out on regular basis, import license data is an imperfect program and can only suggest what ballpark the final number will be in. Last week the import license data was suggesting September would meet or exceed 4.0 million net tons (all products). Based on license data updated on September 30th, September now looks to be another strong month with total imports expected to come in somewhere between 3.7 and 3.9 million net tons.
The biggest difference between last week’s license data and this week is in semi-finished steels. Last week it looked like the mills would receive somewhere between 1.0 and 1.2 million net tons of semi-finished steels (slabs, billets, blooms). The most recent data has that number closer to 900,000 to 1.0 million net tons which is still a big number when compared to the 12 month moving average.
