Import Market Share Shows Declines

Steel Market Update’s new analysis of sheet, plate, long and tubular product imports and their 18 subcategories is still a work in progress, but it offers a timely means to examine the effects of the Section 232 legislation on the market.

Table 1 shows total supply to the market in three months through February and in 12 months through February for the four product groups and the 18 subcategories. Supply to the market is the total of domestic mill shipments to domestic locations plus imports. It shows imports on the same three- and twelve-month basis and then calculates import market share for the two periods for 18 products. Finally, it subtracts the 12-month share from the three-month share and color codes the result green or red. If the result of the subtraction is positive, it means that the import share is increasing, and the code is red. The big picture is that in most cases the import share is declining. Exceptions are HR sheet, HR bars, standard pipe, line pipe and OCTG.