Imports of Cold Rolled, Galvanized, Galvalume Exceed Pre-AD/CVD Rates

There was a surge in foreign steel imports during calendar year 2014. That high rate continued into the first half of 2015 at which time the domestic steel mills filed antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) cases on CORE (coated steels), cold rolled and hot rolled steels. The U.S. Department of Commerce investigation found most of the accused countries guilty of dumping and imposed duties intended to curb or totally eliminate imports from those countries into the United States. The AD/CVD cases worked, well, at least for a couple of years. The year 2017 (and possibly PresidentTrump) appear to be working against the domestic steel industry. Let us explain:

Total steel imports (all products) for 2014 were 3,694,837 net tons, with the biggest importers being the domestic steel mills themselves who brought in 866,061 net tons of semi-finished steels (mostly slabs with some billets). A portion of the hot rolled imported also is attributed to mills like USS/POSCO, Steelscape and CSN. As you can see in the table below, OCTG (oil country tubular goods) averaged 332,024 net tons per month, hot rolled averaged 358,663 net tons, cold rolled averaged 214,660 net tons, galvanized averaged 276,105 net tons, Galvalume and aluminized averaged 85,076 tons, and plate coils and lengths together averaged 331,463 net tons.