Steel Products Prices North America

March 17, 2016
March Steel Imports Trending Toward Higher Slab/HR Tonnage
Written by John Packard
The U.S. Department of Commerce updated foreign steel import license data earlier this week. The trend is for March steel imports to come in around 2.4-2.7 million net tons or in line with what we saw during the months of January and February 2016.
Since we are still early in the month, we are less concerned with what the ultimate total tonnage number will be and more interested in finding changes in trends. For example, the domestic steel mills appear poised to increase semi-finished steel (slabs) imports by a couple of hundred thousand tons. If the month comes in higher than January and February, slabs will be one of the main reasons.


