Based on reported import licenses, US flat products imports rose 34% from 660,000 short tons in March to 887,000 tons in April. This is the highest level of flat products imports since we started collecting data in September 2008.
The climb was driven by a 75% or 207,000-ton rise in hot rolled imports, with significant increases particularly from Russia, but also from Italy, Japan, Korea, and Canada. Hot dip galvanized imports increased by 52,000 tons due to higher imports from India, China, Italy and Taiwan.
I will update the spreadsheet below when licenses are updated this week in order to show mid-May licenses data.