US long products imports drop 47% in November

by Jessica Wagner on December 17, 2009

in Data,Geography,Nerds Only,Products & Markets

Based on reported import licenses and as predicted in my earlier post, US long products imports declined 47% from 210,000 short tons in October to 112,000 tons in November. November 2008 long products imports were 173,000 tons.

While imports of merchant bar were flat, imports of all other products decreased each by over 30%. The largest volume decline was for wire rod, dropping 43% or 51,000 tons, 38,000 tons of which was due to Turkey’s exit from the market in November.

Import licenses recorded up to December 15th were 91,000 tons which indicates that full-month December licenses should be back up to about 200,000 tons.