Based on reported import licenses, US flat products imports fell 13% from 534,000 short tons in January to 463,000 tons in February. In comparison, February 2010 flat imports were 444,000 tons and February 2009 imports were 548,000 tons.
The decline was driven by lower hot roll imports, which decreased by 67,000 tons or 23%, due to imports from Canada, Australia and Germany dropping significantly. Only cut plate imports rose, by 7%.
It’s too early in the month to accurately predict full-month March imports, but I will update the spreadsheet below as soon as the next license data update is made.
Gerdau and Severstal recently announced Q4 and full year 2010 financial results. Links to the companies’ respective earnings releases are below.
As usual, Gerdau’s results were above average. The company’s EBITDA per ton was $159 for the year, second only to Ternium among companies tracked in the Nerds of Steel earnings spreadsheet. Severstal North America’s results are less impressive, even though the company now classifies Sparrows Point, Warren, and Wheeling as discontinued businesses and has excluded the results of these assets from Q4 and full year 2010 financial results. For the year, Severstal NA reported EBITDA of $13 per ton in NA, the lowest number reported among the companies we track.
worldsteel’s latest estimates of world crude steel production were published the other day. I should add a word of more than general caution about this data however. worldsteel itself posts these comments:
The January 2011 crude steel production figures for many countries were not available at the time of this release, thus exceptionally, this month’s statistics include more estimates than usual. These estimates will be updated in March.
In the absence of official data from the Chinese government this month’s China data is an estimate provided by the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA).
The monthly crude steel capacity utilisation ratio is calculated based on crude steel production and capacity information available at worldsteel. The capacity information is based on publicly-available data, updated twice a year and verified through worldsteel’s membership.
As it is, the estimates show a little less than a 3% rise in output from December 2010 and a slightly higher utilization rate for the global industry at about 76%. We’ll comment more at the end of the first quarter, when the updates are in. As usual, all the data for January 2011 (and for a number of prior years) is in the Nerds spreadsheet below:
ArcelorMittal and Ternium have now reported Q4 and full year 2010 financial results. Links to the companies’ press releases appear below.
Both companies saw EBITDA per ton drop in Q4 vs. Q3 2010. However, among the companies tracked in the Nerds of Steel earnings spreadsheet, these two companies turned in the best performance for the full year. Ternium generated $162 per ton of EBITDA in 2010, while ArcelorMittal reported EBITDA per ton of $91.
Based on reported import licenses, US long products imports rose 24% from 171,000 short tons in December to 212,000 tons in January. This can be compared to 166,000 tons in January 2010, 264,000 tons in January 2009, and 385,000 tons in January 2008.
The increase was driven by wire rod imports, which rose by almost 30,000 tons due to higher imports from countries such as Venezuela, Canada, South Africa, Japan and the UK.
Long products imports for February reported up to February 15th were 133,000 tons, which is likely to mean that full-month February imports will be significantly higher that January imports.
Based on reported import licenses, US flat products imports fell 4% from 547,000 short tons in December to 527,000 tons in January. This can be compared to imports of 405,000 tons in December 2009 and 474,000 tons in December 2008.
Imports of all product categories fell except for hot dip galvanized which increased by 16,000 tons due mainly to increased imports from India, Canada and Korea. Cold rolled imports, however, dropped by 19,000 tons, and hot rolled and cut plate imports both fell by 8,000 tons.
It’s too early in the month to accurately predict full-month February imports, but I will update the spreadsheet below as soon as the next license data update is made.
