The flat-rolled steel import market in the United States has shown little activity, with most foreign products largely uncompetitive versus their domestic counterparts, which are readily available at a low cost.
"It's virtually impossible to present any foreign offer to make sense," one Gulf Coast trader source said."A lot of people didn't believe the foreigners were going to stay out of the marketplace but they did," an East Coast service center source said.US steel imports declined to 1.87 million tonnes in May, according to preliminary US Census Bureau data, down by 29.6% from nearly 2.66 million tonnes in the same month last year.Notably, there is a wide gap of roughly 200,678 tonnes between the previously published license data and preliminary import figures for May. That is partly due to a correction in the import data for blooms, billets and slabs, which decreased to 179,446 tonnes from the previously stated 558,120 tonnes.With the Section 232 tariffs and anti-dumping tariffs in place, only a few countries can still ship steel products to the US, sources said."Imports are not competitive, except not sure how low Mexico will go...