Based on reported import licenses, US long steel products imports fell 5% from 265,000 short tons in January to 252,000 tons in February. The decline was mainly due to lower rebar imports from Turkey. February longs imports fell 36% compared to February 2017, again primarily due to lower rebar imports from Turkey.
SIMA US long products import licenses and actuals
2012 to 2018
short tons
Badische Stahlwerke, Kehl, wire rod coils
Photo from Worldsteel Association Image Library by worldsteel / Gregor Schlaeger, image ref: worldsteel_BSW_Germany_Coils_3.jpg
Based on reported import licenses, US flat steel products imports fell 12% from 760,000 short tons in January to 668,000 tons in February. Flat products imports in the first two months of 2018 were 11% lower than in the same period last year. The drop in imports between January and February was mainly due to lower hot roll imports from Canada, Turkey, and Japan.
SIMA US flat products import licenses and actuals
January 2013 to February 2018
short tons
Photo by Stahl-Zentrum/ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe [CC BY-SA 3.0 de (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons
BlueScope and Ternium recently released Q4 2017 financial results. North Star BlueScope reported EBITDA/ton of $118 in the second half of the year, down from $142 in the first half. Ternium reported $148 per ton for Q4 and $151 for the full year 2017. We are still awaiting results from Gerdau and AHMSA.
Worldsteel reported Chinese crude steel production at 67.0 million metric tonnes in January, 0.9% lower than in January 2017. Chinese net finished steel exports (exports minus imports) in January were 3.5 million tonnes, 45.3% lower than in January last year.
China monthly crude steel production
January 2006 to January 2018, thousand metric tonnes
Photo of Ring of Life – Fushun, Liaoning – taken 30 January 2014 by JonteJ26 and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License
Worldsteel published January’s world crude steel production today. World crude steel output was 139.4 million metric tonnes, 0.8% higher than in January 2017.
China accounted for 48% of world output in January with production of 67.0 million tonnes, 0.9% lower than in January 2017. Outside of China, Asian production rose significantly in India (+2.5%), South Korea (+2.7%) and Vietnam (+38.8%). In the European Union, crude production rose 1.4% compared to last January, and in other parts of Europe, Russian output fell 3.9% but Turkish production rose 7.6%. Production in Iran rose 25.9% compared to January 2017 and US production fell 2.2%.
All the data for January 2018 and for a number of prior years can be found in the Nerds spreadsheet below.
Close up of billets being cast and torch cut
Photo from Worldsteel Association Image Library by worldsteel/Roger Ball, Image Ref: worldsteel_nucor_north-america_casting_2.jpg
Based on reported imports licenses, US long steel products imports rose 27% from 239,000 short tons in December to 303,000 tons in January. The increase between December and January was mainly due to higher rebar imports from Turkey. January 2018 longs imports were 33% lower than in January 2017, however, with the difference mainly due to lower rebar imports from Turkey.
SIMA US long products imports licenses and actuals
2012 to 2018
short tons
Production process of rebar at NLMK Kaluga
Photo from Worldsteel Association Image Library by worldsteel / Robert Kolykhalov, Image Ref.: worldsteel_NLMK_russia_finished-product_1.jpg
