Economy
February 26, 2020
Domestic Mills Take Market Share Back from Imports
Written by Peter Wright
Domestic mills won back market share from imports in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Even though the steel market contracted by 1.9 percent in 2019, shipments by U.S. mills to domestic locations increased by 2.9 percent as imports declined.
Table 1 shows 13 years of history of total steel supply to the U.S. market in short tons broken down into shipments from domestic mills and imports, excluding semi-finished. The hot rolled steel market totaled 106.5 million tons in 2019. Supply declined in the steel recession of 2015 and 2016, increased in 2017 and 2018, and declined by 1.9 percent in 2019. In 2019, imports excluding semis totaled 20.1 million short tons, down from 28.3 million in 2017 and 24.6 million in 2018.
