USA cut steel imports by 10 percent in June

The latest statistics released by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) show that the country's steel imports fell 10 percent in June this year. The total volume of steel imports in the first half of the year increased by 3 percent.

In June 2015, the United States imported a total of 3.049 million tonnes of steel, including 2.458 million tonnes of finished products, up 10.3 and 10.7 percent, respectively, compared to May this year. The main finished products with a significant increase in imports in June compared to May were heavy structural forms (up 32 percent) and wire rod (up 11 percent). The steel import market share reached about 27 percent in June.

Since the beginning of the year, steel imports amounted to 21.67 million tons, which is 3 percent higher compared to the same period in 2014. The main products that recorded a significant increase in imports in the first half compared to the same six-month period in 2014 were: pipe products (up 66 percent), standard pipe (up 39 percent), rebar (up 36 percent), wire in coils (an increase of up to 27 percent), heavy structural forms (an increase of up to 26 percent), tinplate (an increase of up to 24 percent), galvanized sheets (an increase of up to 22 percent), plates (an increase of up to 20 percent) and cold-rolled sheets (an increase of up to 16 percent) ).

In June, the largest volumes of finished steel imports came from South Korea (311,000 tons, an increase of 13 percent), China (190,000 tons, a drop of 37 percent), Japan (181,000 tons, a drop of 3 percent), Germany (147,000 tons , up 12 percent) and Turkey (142,000 tons, down 36 percent) compared to May.

The largest maritime suppliers in the first six months of 2015 were South Korea (3,056,000 tons, up 17 percent), Turkey (1,589,000 tons, up 65 percent), China (1,521,000 tons, unchanged), Japan (1,229,000 tons, up by 24 percent) and Germany (821,000 tons, up 41 percent) compared to the first half of 2014.