Steel Products Prices North America
August 8, 2019
Third Quarter Draws Big Jump in Semi-finished Imports
Written by John Packard
On the surface, steel imports appear to have increased substantially in July, based on license data from the Commerce Department. While the figures are preliminary, they put total imports for July at 3.5 million tons, a million tons above average.
Skewing the data are the licenses for semi-finished imports, which registered about 1.6 million tons. July is the first month of the third quarter and buyers were quick to secure needed slabs from nations with quarterly quota limits, notably Brazil. Semi-finished imports can be expected to recede again in September and October.
