May US crude steel imports are expected to fall by more than 20% from the previous month

    According to the latest steel import monitoring and analysisdata released by the US Department of Commerce, the total number of US crudesteel import license applications in May was 2.94 million short tons, adecrease of 26.3% compared with the previous period, and the actual crude steelimport volume in April was also reduced by 21.3%.

    In May, the total number of applications for import licensesfor finished products in the United States was 2.34 million short tons, adecrease of 17.9% from the actual imports of finished materials in April. Inthe first five months of 2018, including crude steel import permits in May andactual data in April, the imports of crude steel and finished steel were 15.38million short tons and 12.04 million short tons, respectively, a year-on-yeardecrease of 2.5% and 0.3% respectively. . It is estimated that the share of thefinished product import market in May will be 25%.

    In terms of capacity utilization, according to data releasedby the American Iron and Steel Institute on June 11, the utilization rate ofcrude steel in the United States fell to 74.8% in the previous week. US ironand steel companies produced 1.753 million short tons of steel last week, adecrease of 0.1% from the previous week, but still an increase of 0.3% over thesame period of last year. In the same period of last year, the capacityutilization rate was 74.9% and the output was 1.747 million short tons.