In the first seven months of this year, US wire rod imports increased 2.84 times as compared to the corresponding period of 2009, reaching 799,000 metric tons, according to the data released by the US International Trade Commission (US ITC).
In the given period, US wire rod demand for wire rod imports was primarily satisfied by its NAFTA partner Canada, which more than doubled its wire rod exports to the US to 217,890 metric tons, accounting about 27 percent of total US wire rod imports.
Another country which enjoyed this higher demand was Turkey. In the January-July period, Turkey increased its wire rod exports to the US by 4.3 times year on year to 139,640 metric tons. Turkey was followed by Japan (82,670 mt - doubled), Brazil (76,400 mt - up 3.14 times), the UK (70,435 mt - up 4.13 times), Mexico (58,125 mt - up 7.06 times) and Italy (54,075 mt compared to 72 mt in the year-ago period).
This trend seems to have been continued in August this year. The US Commerce Department's most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data show that in August wire rod import permit applications amounted to 113,168 metric tons, which indicates a rise of 85 percent as compared to the import tonnage recorded in August 2009. In August, while Canadian wire rod exports to the US remained almost at the same level compared to the previous months in 2010, Turkey, Japan and Mexico increased their wire rod exports to this country as compared to July.
* License data for August 2010 sourced from Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA).