Steel imports increase in July
By Staff -- Purchasing, 10/7/1999
Imports of foreign steel rose to 3.2 million tons in July from a revised 3.1 million in June in a reversal that suggests the U.S. industry's struggles against foreign steel may continue. The 6% increase reported by Commerce, which followed a 9% drop in June, was the third expansion in five months. Still, since November, when Commerce first threatened punitive tariffs on imports of the industry's core sheet products, foreign shipments have decreased by one-fifth. So despite periodic monthly spikes, the Clinton Administration has stayed with its policy of relying primarily on imposing tariffs at the industry's request, and resisting stronger sanctions that trade and commerce officials fear could prompt a trade war.The government's July figures indicate that some product shifting may have occurred. The one-month increase reflected jumps primarily in shipments from Mexico, Ukraine, and Taiwan--countries that were not targeted in the early complaints. Each punitive tariff request takes several months to resolve and, because it targets one product and one country at a time, the U.S. industry fears foreign steel companies can shift to making other products, and other countries will step in to fill supply voids.
For the first seven months of 1999, imports totaled 20.1 million tons. This is 10% below the 22.3 million tons during the first seven months of 1998, but it is a 5% increase from the 19 million tons in the same period of 1997, before the Asian economic crisis reduced demand for steel abroad and forced foreign companies to sell their surplus in the healthy U.S. market.
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