Based on reported import licenses, US long steel products imports rose 60% from 206,000 short tons in December to 329,000 tons in January. Compared to January import licenses, February licenses fell 47% to 175,000 tons. The drop between January and February was mainly due to lower rebar import licenses from Italy, Bulgaria and Vietnam. Wire rod licenses also fell significantly in February from Germany and parallel flange sections import licenses fell from South Korea and Luxembourg.
While final January import data will be published at the end of March and February import data mid-April, based on January and February licenses, long products imports so far this year are 5% lower than imports in the first two months of 2018.
SIMA US long products imports licenses
January 2013 to February 2019
short tons
Production process of rebar at NLMK Kaluga
Photo from Worldsteel Association Image Library by worldsteel / Robert Kolykhalov
Based on reported import licenses, US flat steel products imports rose 10% from 656,000 short tons in December to 725,000 tons in January. Compared to January import licenses, February licenses fell 19% to 585,000 tons, mainly due to lower hot rolled licenses from Canada and Mexico, as well as lower hot dip galvanized licenses from a number of countries including South Africa, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates and Canada.
Based on January and February licenses, flat products imports so far this year are 11% lower than imports in the first two months of 2018, led by an 18% drop in hot rolled imports and a 20% drop in cold rolled imports.
SIMA US flat products import licenses
January 2013 to February 2019
short tons
Photo of Steel coils in storage in the hot-dip coating line from Worldsteel Association Image Library by worldsteel / Gregor Schläger, Image ID: 179
Worldsteel reported crude steel production in China at 75.0 million metric tonnes in January, 4.3% higher than in January 2018. In addition, steel industry sources report Chinese net finished steel exports in January at approximately 5.1 million tonnes, 47% higher than in January 2018.
China monthly crude steel production 2006 to 2019
thousand metric tonnes
Photo of Shanghai skyline by Ermell [CC0] from Wikimedia
Worldsteel published January’s world crude steel production today. World steel output was 146.7 million metric tonnes, 1.0% higher than in January 2018.
China accounted for 51% of world output in January with production of 75.0 million tonnes, 4.3% higher than in January 2018. Asian output outside of China fell 2.9%, mainly due to a 9.8% crude production decline in Japan and despite a 35.2% rise in Vietnam. European Union production fell 3.5% on January 2018, in this case following a 7.2% decline in Germany. In North America, US production rose 11.0%, while in Turkey, output fell 19.5% and in Russia, production was down 4.5%.
Photo of number 5 Blast Furnace located at the Port Talbot Corus (now Tata) Steel Plant South Wales UK by Grubb at English Wikipedia [Public domain]
US import licenses for long steel products in December were 206,000 short tons, 17% lower than November imports. Compared to December, January import licenses rose 60% to 329,000 tons. The increase in January was mainly due to higher rebar licenses from Italy, Vietnam, and Bulgaria. Wire rod import licenses also increased significantly from Brazil, Germany and Egypt, while parallel flange sections licenses rose considerably from South Korea and Taiwan.
Based on January to November final import data and December licenses, US longs imports fell 25% between 2017 and 2018 with the largest volume declines coming from wire rod (-25%), rebar (-20%), and parallel flange sections (-28%).
Final December import data should be published mid-March.
SIMA US long products import licenses
2013 to 2019
short tons
Photo by Frank Vincentz [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)] at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Steel_wire_02_ies.jpg
Worldsteel reported crude steel production in China at 76.1 million metric tonnes in December, 8.2% higher than in December 2017. Full-year output in 2018 was 928.3 million tonnes, 6.6% higher than it was in 2017.
In addition, Chinese net finished steel exports (exports minus imports) in December were 4.6 million tonnes, 1.8% higher than in December 2017, while full-year net exports were 9.4% lower than in 2017. Full-year net exports as a portion of crude steel production fell from 7.2% in 2017 to 6.1% in 2018.
China monthly crude steel production 2006 to 2018
thousand metric tonnes
Photo by 颐园新居 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
