New Report Preview – Steel Market

Led by meaningful increases for rebar (up 131%) and plate (up 65%), January steel imports are up 21% from last month to 2.44 million tonnes, the highest level since last June, according to the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) licensing program.  We believe that this pickup is already having some impact slowing steel’s recent pricing momentum, as we have seen a smaller price increase for rebar than other longs – $15 versus $30 – and trade press is reporting today that a hoped-for price increase for plate for March is being shelved.

We believe that domestic steelmakers showing sensitivity to these issues – with fighting imports via competitive prices rather than solely relying on trade enforcement a key component to the relative health of the steel market during this latest market downdraft, so this is good to see.

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