SMU Data and Models

Drill Down of Cold Rolled Imports into Product Detail for 2019

March 13, 2020

Using U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) data, Steel Market Update has broken down the import tonnage of cold rolled sheet into coil and leveled, four thickness ranges, and how much was full hard, annealed and high strength.

This update examines the total cold rolled sheet and strip imports into the U.S. for 2019 as a whole and by month. Only 2.4 percent was strip. By gauge range the sheet broke down to: 27.3 percent < 0.5mm, 30.7 percent ≥ 0.5 to 1.0 mm, 41.2 percent > 1 to 3mm, and 0.8 percent > 3 mm.

Table 1 is a detailed summary by month and year-to-date for 2019 through December of cold rolled imports showing gauge ranges and condition for sheet. Strip is itemized separately at the bottom of the table. Both are in metric tons.

Figure 1 shows the year-to-date cold rolled sheet tonnage down into the four gauge ranges that are identified in the HTS codes.

Figure 2 does the same thing for condition. It identifies the volume of full hard, annealed, high strength and high strength annealed. Year to date December, 45.8 percent was full hard, 44.1 percent was annealed, 2.5 percent was high strength and 7.6 percent was high strength annealed.

Note: This data was accessed through the USITC database. All steel traded globally is classified by the Harmonized Tariff System (HTS). The HTS code has 10 digits. The first six are globally universal. The last four are used at the discretion of the nations involved in a particular transaction and are the basis of this report. The way the U.S. uses the last four digits to define products may be different from other nations’ product classification.