US steel import licenses up in Jan vs Dec

The US was licensed to import 2.76 million tonnes of steel in January, according to data from the US International Trade Administration’s steel import monitoring system (SIMA), up by 5.18% from 2.62 million tonnes the previous month and by 25.35% from the 2.20 million tonnes shipped in January 2021.

Licenses for steel reinforcing bar (rebar) had the largest month-on-month jump at nearly 60%, an about-face from December when rebar import licenses reflected the steepest month-on-month decline.

Other products tracked by Fastmarkets that increased from the previous month were heavy structural shapes; bloom, billet and slab; and hot-rolled sheet, up by 54.80%, 9.47% and 3.61% respectively.

While most tracked products received fewer shipping licenses in January compared to December, the majority of the drops were relatively modest, with the exception of an 11.79% drop in licenses for coiled plate the next two steepest declines were by just 2.66% for hot-rolled bars and 2.45% for hot-dipped galvanized sheet and strip.

More than one-third of December’s steel import licenses were issued to Canada and Mexico – 532,458.1 and 528,590.8 tonnes respectively. These numbers were up from 506,937.5 tonnes for Canada and 501,869.7 tonnes for Mexico in December.

The bulk of Canada’s import licenses went to hot-rolled sheet, while Mexico primarily received licenses to ship slab and other semi-finished products.

Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel rebar, import, loaded truck Port of Houston for immediate delivery was at $950-980 per ton ($47.50-49.00 per cwt) on February 9, up by 1.05% from $940-970 per ton the previous week.