Steel Products Prices North America
December 30, 2014
2014 Steel Imports Will be 2nd Highest in History
Written by John Packard
As we move into the month of January all eyes will be on the December steel import data which will determine if 2014 goes down in history as the largest or second largest year for total steel imports in U.S. history. Prior to 2014 the record for the year with the most foreign steel imports has been held by 2006 with its 45.3 million net tons. The second largest year for foreign steel imports is currently 1998 at 42.5 million net tons. We expect 1998 to fall to third place by the time we get the final December steel import data.
For the first 11 months 2014 total steel imports were 40.6 million tons (based on US Department of Commerce Steel Import Monitoring System data). To that total we anticipate adding another 3.5 million net tons which would put 2014 into the second slot in history behind 2006.
