Flat Roll Imports by District of Entry and Source-May 2018

Here are some examples to illustrate why this information can be actionable:  Total cold rolled sheet imports in May year to date were down by 17 percent, but Chicago was down by 86 percent and Laredo was up by 10 percent. Total HDG imports were down by 11 percent in May, but Detroit was up by 16 percent and Houston was down by 20 percent. Total hot rolled sheet imports were up by 35 percent, but Los Angeles was up by 62 percent, while Chicago was down by 24 percent. Total other metallic coated, mainly Galvalume, was down by 18 percent, but Houston was down by 27 percent, while Cleveland was up by 292 percent.  The discrepancy between the changes at the national and local levels is why it’s important for both market understanding and negotiating position to know what’s going on in your own backyard.

The table included here (click to enlarge) is a small part of the detailed analysis of the cold rolled sheet tonnage. The bar graph shows the tonnage of cold rolled that entered the top 10 districts in YTD May for 2017 and 2018 ranked by 2018 tonnage. Los Angeles had the most volume followed by Detroit and New Orleans. New Orleans and Philadelphia had the biggest change compared to last year.

We are now producing regional reports for the same six products, which consolidates the data by district. Seven regions are considered: Pacific North and South, the Atlantic North and South, the Gulf, Great Lakes and the Rio Grande Valley. The pie chart shown here is a regional analysis for cold rolled sheet.

These detailed reports are compiled from tariff and trade data published by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission. Our national level import reports are sourced from U.S. Department of Commerce, Enforcement and Compliance, aka the Steel Import Monitoring System. In the development of these reports by district and source country, we have discovered that the SIMA data for HRC and CRC contains some high-alloy steel such as stainless and tool steel, which have been misclassified at the ports. These alloy steels are not included in our detailed reports, which results in a small discrepancy between the two data sets for CRC and HRC.