US flat products imports down 38% on April 2019

by Jessica Wagner on May 8, 2020

in Data

Based on reported import licenses, US flat products imports fell 38% from 749,000 short tons in April 2019 to 466,000 tons in April this year. Of all flat products categories, hot dip galvanized shows the largest import volume decline at 45%, with lower volumes from Canada, Austria, Vietnam, and South Africa. Compared to last April, hot roll imports are down 30%, cold roll down 33% and cut plate down 57%.

Based on January, February and March imports and April import licenses, flat products imports so far this year were 20% lower than in the same period last year with the largest import volume declines coming from hot roll (-18%) and cold roll (-24%).

SIMA US flat products import licenses

January 2014 to April 2020
Short tons

Steel coil car at Rochelle Railroad Park, IL, 2005, from Wikimedia Commons.
The original uploader was Slambo at English Wikipedia. / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)