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According to the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) licensing program, May steel import licenses declined 10.4% to 2.63 million tonnes (mt) from April’s 2.93 mt.  The overall decline was driven by weakness in the sheet market, as sheet imports dropped 18.8% from a multi-year high in April in tandem with a 16.3% decrease in semi-finished licenses as domestic mills slowed purchases of slab to roll into sheet.

Chinese steel imports into the US in May bucked the overall trend and are poised to potentially reach the highest level since the spring of 2009 (just before the huge Chinese oil pipe case was filed) as a doubling in hot-rolled bar imports was only partially offset by fewer licenses of hot-dipped galvanized, cold-rolled sheet and wire rod.

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

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