Global Trade of Hot Rolled Coil

We are continuing our investigation to quantify the players in the global trade of both HRC and CRC. We now have data for the first quarter of this year. This information is sourced quarterly from the Iron and Steel Statistics Bureau in the UK. It takes about 10 weeks after the close of a quarter before all the countries have submitted their information. However, even if rather late, we think the history helps explain where we are now and shines a light on the relative position of the U.S. in the global picture. This update covers the global trade of HRC through Q1 2017.

Data was received from 45 exporting nations and 201 importing nations, not including those within the EU. For the purpose of this analysis, we consider the EU as a single trading block. Figure 1 shows the global total by quarter, including both trade within the EU and excluding that volume. In Q1 2017, total global trade increased sharply. But when trade within the EU is excluded, we see that global HRC trade has been quite flat since Q4 2014.