BERLIN: Steel imports fell by 7 percent to 2.8 million tons in September, down from 3 million tons in August, according to the U.S. Commerce Department’s Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis data.
The American Iron and Steel Institute reported imports for finished steel, which would not require any further processing in the United States, dropped 9 percent to 2 million in September, down from 2.3 million in August. Imports captured about 25 percent of the overall U.S. market share in September and year-to-date, down from the record 29 percent that caused thousands of layoffs and mill idlings nationwide last year.
“The use of recently passed trade laws are a way to deal with the results of overcapacity, which have resulted in a massive surge of dumped and subsidized steel in U.S. markets,” AISI President and CEO Tom Gibson said in a conference call with reporters this week.
In September, imports of sheets and strip galvanized electrolytic rose by 82 percent, oil country goods by 20 percent, and sheets and strip all other metallic coatings by 15 percent. Imports of reinforcing bars increased by 12 percent so far this year.
The United States has imported 24.8 million net tons so far this year, down 20 percent as compared to the first nine months of 2015. Imports of finished steel products so far this year have fallen 22 percent to 19.6 million tons.
South Korea has sent 2.9 million tons of steel to the United States so far this year, an 18 percent decline as compared to the same period in 2015. Imports from are down 14 percent from Japan and 9 percent from Turkey.
