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March preliminary steel imports rose 7.8% from 2.7 million tons (mt) in February to 2.9 mt, the highest since last May at 2.96 mt, which was the post-recession high. The most meaningful increases were for semi-finished steel (up 15.4%), line pipe (up 50.8%), cut-to-length plate (up 43.1%) and OCTG (up 21.6%).

The increase puts year-to-date imports more than 31% above year ago levels. Because preliminary imports are some 10.7% below where March licenses predicted, we suspect there will be an upward revision that lifts final March imports above levels seen last May to a new post-recession high.

Our full report is available to subscribers and provides further thoughts on March imports as well as our outlook for the coming months and implications for steel equities.

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