Steel Products Prices North America
November 7, 2018
Effect of Section 232 on Rolled Steel Imports Unclear
Written by Peter Wright
Total rolled product imports declined by 20.4 percent in October, versus the same month last year, measured as a three-month moving average, but the effects of Section 232 are still not clear. This early look at October’s import volume is based on Commerce Department license data (see explanation below). Figure 1 shows the tonnage of total rolled steel and semi-finished imports through October on a 3MMA basis. Evidently the tariff has had no effect on semi-finished products. Rolled product volume has declined since May, but that also occurred in the second half of last year and there are wide differences between products. So, the jury is still out.
Except for early 2016 (when the volume was very low), the import volume of semis on a 3MMA basis has ranged between 500,000 and a million tons per month for the last seven years. The volume of semis is now lower than it was in mid-2014, but has trended up since early 2016.
