Based on reported import licenses, US flat products imports fell 15% from 616,000 short tons in October 2019 to 526,000 tons last month. Hot rolled imports declined by the largest volume, down 21% on last October, due mainly to lower volumes from Canada and South Korea. Hot dip galvanized imports fell by the second largest volume, down 15%.
Based on January to September imports and October import licenses, US flat products imports in the first ten months of 2020 were 20% lower than in the same period last year with cut plate imports -40%, hot rolled -21%, cold rolled -24%, and hot dip galvanized -12%.
Steel Import Monitor US flat products import licenses
January 2014 to October 2020
Short tons
Rolled steel coils (possibly by Rautaruukki) in the VR freight yard at the city of Oulu in Finland, June 2009, by Methem (Mikko J. Putkonen), CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Following iron ore pellet prices? You may be interested in this week’s Steel Data Room featured dataset “Iron Ore Pellet Price, Cliffs NA Quarterly Realized Product Revenue Rate”.
In this dataset, you can find Cleveland-Cliffs‘ quarterly realized product revenue rate for their Mining and Pelletizing business from Q4 1992 to their latest Q3 2020 data released last Friday. This is the equivalent to a North American pellet price, which we at First River use for our North American steelmaking cost models.
Try a free Steel Data Room trial to see all the steel-related data available which will make your charting and modeling easy.
Worldsteel reported crude steel production in China at 92.6 million metric tonnes in September, 10.9% higher than in September 2019. Chinese production in the first nine months of 2020 was 4.7% higher than in the same period last year.
Data from the General Administration of Customs show Chinese net finished steel exports (exports minus imports) in September were 0.9 million tonnes, down 77.6% on September 2019. Net exports in the first nine months of 2020 were 39.1% lower than in the same period last year.
China monthly crude steel production
Thousand metric tonnes
Seamless steel pipes on cooling bed at Baotou Iron & Steel from Worldsteel Image Library by worldsteel / Shawn Koh
Worldsteel published September 2020 world crude steel production today. World steel output was 156.4 million metric tonnes, 2.9% higher than in September 2019. Crude steel production in the first nine months of 2020 was 3.1% lower than in the same period last year.
China accounted for 59% of world output in September. Chinese production was 92.6 million tonnes, 10.9% higher than in September 2019. Asian output outside of China fell 3.8%, mainly due to a 19.3% drop in Japan.
European Union crude steel production fell 14.0% on last September on declines in Italy (-18.7%), Germany (-9.7%), Spain (-20.7%) and France (-20.1%). In North America, US production was down 18.5% while Canadian output fell 27.6% and Mexican output fell 3.9%. Other increases to note include Turkey (+18.0%) and Vietnam (+45.3%).
This week’s Steel Data Room dataset of the week is for you steelnerds following investments in steelmaking technologies to reduce CO2 emissions. The dataset “Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Source Sector” includes emissions data published by the European statistics authority Eurostat and sourced from the European Environment Agency (EEA).
Here you can find data on emissions of ten different greenhouse gases by European country and by industry, with industries including iron and steel production, aluminum production, and many others. Data goes back to 1990 and importantly includes Turkey.
Interested in taking a closer look (especially to understand the details defining gases and consuming industries )? Take a look with a free Steel Data Room trial.
Based on reported import licenses, now available on the new ITA Steel Import Monitor website, US long products imports fell 15% from 214,000 short tons in September 2019 to 181,000 tons in September this year. Licenses indicate that the decline was mainly due to lower rebar imports from Algeria, Spain, and Turkey.
Based on January to August imports and September import licenses, long products imports so far this year were 19% lower than in the same period last year with the largest import volume declines coming from wire rod (-34%) and parallel flange sections (-45%).
ITA Steel Import Monitor US long products import licenses
