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According to the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) licensing program, June steel import licenses declined 4.9% to 2.54 million tonnes (mt) from May’s 2.67 mt.  The overall decline was driven by weakness in the sheet market, as total sheet imports dropped 12.8% from May’s level, and are now down 26.3% from a multi-year high in April.  Semi-finished licenses bucked the overall downtrend, rising a modest 4.4%, as Brazilian semi-finished tonnage jumped some 81.7% in June, following a 41.8% fall to a year low in May.

Bucking the overall downtrend, June Chinese imports are poised to potentially reach the highest level since early 2009 (just before the huge Chinese oil pipe case was filed), while Korean tonnage looks set to increase 9.4% from May levels to near record levels.

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

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