US steel imports fell 23% month on month in June

According to the preliminary data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, 1.391 million short tons of steel were imported into the United States in June, a decrease of 23.0% compared with the final value in May. The main reason is that the import of semi-finished steel decreased sharply. In June, US imports of semi-finished products fell by 73.9% month on month to 80000 short tons, while imports of finished steel products fell by 12.7% to 1.31 million short tons. Among the finished steel products imported in June, the import volume of pipeline steel pipe and hot-dip galvanized sheet / strip steel increased significantly, with a month on month increase of 30.2% and 23.3% respectively. In June, the market share of finished steel imported from the United States was estimated to be 21%.

In the first half of the year, US steel imports fell by 20.8% to 12.387 million short tons. Among them, the import volume of finished steel products was 8.632 million short tons, with a year-on-year decrease of 26.2%. Except for the import of mechanical pipe materials, the import volume of other varieties decreased year on year.

South Korea, Japan and Germany were still the main source countries of finished steel products in the first half of the year, with imports of 1124000 short tons, 434000 short tons and 377000 short tons, respectively, down 22.5%, 40.0% and 38.9% year-on-year. In addition, in the first six months, Turkey exported 323000 short tons of finished steel to the United States, up 66.1% year-on-year; Brazil exported 285000 short tons to the United States, down 10.1% year-on-year.