Steel Products Prices North America
January 11, 2018
Commerce Data Shows Imports on the Decline
Written by Peter Wright
Imports of rolled steel into the United States have been on the decline since peaking in July, based on a three-month moving average of government import data through the end of 2017. In three months through December compared to three months through September, total rolled steel imports declined by 16.8 percent, while sheet products dropped by 18.2 percent.
The weekly accumulative licensed import tonnages were complete for December and reported by of the U.S. Department of Commerce on Jan. 9. The data is reported within the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis system (SIMA). An explanation of the methodology that Steel Market Update uses to analyze the trade data is given at the end of this piece together with notes describing SIMA. All volumes in this analysis are reported in short tons. We prefer not to dwell on single-month results because of the extreme variability that can occur in individual products. In the comments below, we use three-month moving averages to give what we believe is the most accurate picture.
