China produced 81.7 million tonnes in January, accounting for 53% of world output and falling 11.2% on January, 2021. In other parts of Asia, Indian steel production rose 4.7% on last January, but Japanese output fell 2.1%, as did South Korean output by 1.0%.
European Union crude steel production fell 6.8% on last January following a 1.4% decline in Germany. North American production rose 2.5% with US output up 4.2%. Other significant changes compared to January include a 7.8% decline in Turkey, a 4.8% drop in Brazil, and a 20.3% production increase in Iran.
“Belts or chains of a pig iron casting machine with the moulds filled by liquid hot pig iron before cooling it with water and turning it into hard ingots of pig iron. The foto is taken at one of the pig iron casting machines in Ukraine.” by Blast furnace chip worker, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Based on reported import licenses, US long steel products imports rose 42% from 258,000 short tons in January, 2021 to 368,000 tons in January, 2022.
Wire rod imports rose by the highest percentage and volume, increasing by 114% due to higher volumes from a number of countries including Mexico, India and Algeria. Imports of all other long products categories rose, with the exception of rebar, where imports fell marginally at 3% due to lower imports from Turkey which were offset by increasing imports from Algeria.
US long products import licenses
January 2015 to January 2022
Short tons
“Vaulted roof with coffered niches at the Novokosino subway station. Moscow.” by STALFORM Engineering, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Based on reported import licenses, US flat products imports rose 105% from 481,000 short tons in January, 2021 to 987,000 tons in January, 2022.
Hot rolled imports rose by the largest volume, up 101% due mainly to higher volumes from Mexico, Canada, Japan and Turkey. Hot dip galvanized imports rose by the second highest volume, following increases from Vietnam, Turkey, and South Africa.
Steel Import Monitor US flat products import licenses
Fourth quarter earnings reports have been published for the top US steelmakers. Nucor reported 20.3 million short tons of steel shipments to outside customers in 2021 and Steel Dynamics reported 9.6 million short tons. So many more details are available including steel shipments by product category, as well as shipments of downstream products if you check out the two Steel Data Room datasets dedicated to Nucor and SDI shipments reports. And all the historical data published over the years is held for you in one place.
As you can see in the chart below, it’s easy to combine data from two different sources in the Steel Data Room. And First River updates the data for you when the new numbers are published, so every time you open your chart, you’ll see the most up-to-date figures.
As US tariff agreements with European Union countries and the United Kingdom are changed and renegotiated, we are all closely following US imports from key countries. We use the Steel Data Room’s US Census Bureau steel products dataset to find the data we need.
While using this dataset, you don’t need to mess with the 10-digit trade codes because they are already organized into major steel product categories such as sheet, cold rolled strip, cut to length plate or rebar. In addition, US import and export data is available back to 2013 monthly and annually by country of origin/destination and by US port of entry/exit in volume and in value.
You can easily create great charts in the Steel Data Room like the one below which illustrates how the top European sheet exporting countries to the US have consistently included the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom. And as soon as the US Census Bureau publishes the December, 2021 data in one week’s time, the chart automatically updates.
Interested in more details? Have a look at what’s available in the Steel Data Room by trying a free 4-week trial.
Worldsteel reported crude steel production in China at 86.2 million metric tonnes in December, 6.8% lower than in December, 2020. Chinese crude steel output in 2021 was 3.0% lower than in 2020 at 1,032.8 million tonnes.
Data from China’s General Administration of Customs show net finished steel exports in December at 4.0 million tonnes, 15.8% higher than in December, 2020. On a full-year basis, net 2021 exports were 57.4% higher than in 2020.
