Steel Products Prices North America
April 18, 2018
April Steel Imports Trending Toward 3.5 Million Ton Month
Written by John Packard
The U.S. Department of Commerce updated their license data for the months of March and April, and we now have data through April 17. Based on the data just released, both March and April appear poised to come in around 3.5 million net tons. The largest importers continue to be the domestic steel mills as they are the only ones that import semi-finished steels (slabs and billets), which are then rolled into sheet, longs or pipe and tube products.
Finished steel imports are trending toward 2.7 million net tons in March and 2.5 million net tons for April. Our graph below puts the 12-month moving average at just shy of 2.5 million net tons and the 3-month moving average at 2.1 million net tons (based on final census months only).
