Based on reported import licenses and after dropping about the same amount in October, US flat products imports increased 11% from 509,000 short tons to 564,000 tons in November. This can be compared to 423,000 tons in November 2009 and 641,000 tons in November 2008.
Hot rolled imports rose the most, by 65,000 tons, driven mainly by a sharp increase from Australia. Hot dip galivanized imports, however, declined by 20,000 tons, here due to a large decline of imports from India.
It’s too early in the month to accurately predict full-month December imports, but I will update the spreadsheet below after the December 14th data comes out tomorrow.
The OECD Steel Committee held its 69th session last week. They’re bona fide steel nerds from government, industry associations and steel companies. They say that members and observers account for around 60% of world steel production and 76% of world exports of steel – but this looks like old data. Their declared purpose is to focus on three closely related areas:
Steel policy issues, where efforts will be made to strengthen an open, free and global steel trading system and to diffuse best policy practice with respect to the necessary adjustments of the sector.
Analytical and statistical work on steel, which will provide the information and analysis needed to support the Committee’s policy discussions.
Activities with non-members, where efforts will be made to include new important non-member economies in areas of mutual interest. In carrying out these activities, consultations with the TUAC and BIAC take place, as required.
For all of us who didn’t know – TUAC = Trade Union Advisory Committee; and BIAC= the Business & Industry Advisory Committee. The OECD Steel Committee holds meetings and workshops to discuss current and emerging issues related to these activities. The most recent meeting, last week, was held in Paris. Tough duty.
But whatever you think of the process, the output is sometimes useful. The organizers have kindly given access to all the papers presented. I haven’t had a chance to go through them all yet, but the market development group provides some interesting regional insights into what’s happening in various parts of the world. Also, the worldsteel contributions provide useful detail behind the October short term forecast. If you find a particularly interesting paper please flag it for others in the comments section below.
worldsteel published the world’s crude steel production data for October today. So here are the data below and here’s a link to the press release. Production was up a little under 5% for the month over September in total and a little under 2% on a daily production rate. Everywhere seemed to show some improvement.
Based on reported import licenses, US long products imports stayed flat in October at 194,000 short tons compared to September imports of 195,000 tons.
Imports of all products declined except for beams and structural angles and channels. Beams imports more than doubled from 15,000 tons to 35,000 tons, with the rise coming mainly from Germany, So. Korea and Spain. Structural angles and channels imports increased by 1,000 tons.
Long products imports licenses reported up to November 16th were 84,000 tons which probably means that full-month November imports will be slightly lower than October imports.
Severstal recently announced Q3 2010 financial results. The company’s press release can be found here and the operational report is here. The North American business had a rough quarter. EBITDA per ton fell to negative $38, down from positive $31 in Q2 despite the fact that 3 of Severstal’s 4 US plants ran at 100% of capacity. This is the lowest EBITDA per ton number recorded for Q3 among the companies tracked in the Nerds of Steel earnings spreadsheet.
Based on reported import licenses, US flat products imports declined 10% from 563,000 short tons in September to 505,000 tons in October. This can be compared to 482,000 tons of flat products imports in October 2009 and 778,000 tons in October 2008.
Hot rolled imports fell by 71,000 tons mainly due to lower imports from Korea and Australia. In contrast, hot dip galvanized imports increased by 23,000 tons due to a sharp rise in imports from India.
It’s too early in the month to accurately predict full-month November imports, but I will update the spreadsheet below with the newest November 18th data next week.
