US finished steel imports to drop 14% - AISI forecast

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) predicts a significant decline in the country's finished steel imports during the current year. The estimates provided by the association are based on the most recent steel imports data for the current year.

The country is likely to see a 14.3% decline in finished steel imports for the whole of 2019. The estimated annual finished imports in 2019 are likely to be 22.012 million net tonnes. The volume of imports of finished goods in the United States amounted to 25.694 million tons. in general for 2018. Meanwhile, total steel imports are likely to decline 11.9% from 33.731 million tonnes in 2018 to 29.724 million tonnes this year, AISI said.

AISI expects a moderate sharp decline in imports for most steel products over the course of the year, with the exception of a few. Hot rolled sheet imports are likely to fall the most, down nearly 26% from the previous year. Imports of coiled and cold rolled sheets are likely to decline by 24.1% and 22.9%, respectively.

Reinforcing bars, steel plates and heavy structural profiles will be the only products in which the import volume in 2019 will increase over the previous year. It is forecast that imports of heavy structural forms will have the largest jump, while imports will increase by 6.6%. It is estimated that imports of reinforcing bars and plates will grow 2.3% and 4.0% year on year, respectively.

Imports of finished steel mill products from Brazil will grow by 27.7% in 2019. However, AISI forecasts a decline in finished imports from Vietnam and Germany by almost 33% and 18%, respectively.