The U.S. steel industry is on track to ship about 110 million net tons of steel products this year, up from almost 106 million tons in 2007. That's the word from Andrew G. Sharkey, outgoing president of the American Iron and Steel Institute at its recent annual meeting. He also estimates that steel imports will be around 30.5 million tons this year, down from 33.2 million tons in 2007.

Annualized first-quarter imports are running at a rate of 33.9 million tons. Still, Sharkey insists that imports will run below the 2007 import tonnage of 32.3 million. Exports, which this spring have been running around 11.7 million tons annualized, may exceed 12 million tons in 2008, which would be another record, Sharkey said during a briefing.

So, the Washington-based trade group's numbers project that apparent steel supply in the U.S. will increase to about 123 million tons in 2008, up just slightly from a revised 122 million tons in 2007. This is close to the end-March annualized projection of 123.5 million tons for 2008.

Even though the AISI meeting was held in conjunction with the Chicago-based Metals Service Center Institute, Sharkey didn't address actual end-use projections to compare with the 116 million tons in 2007 that includes distribution industry inventory-adjustment calculations.

Newly named AISI Chairman Keith Busse, who also is CEO of Steel Dynamics in Fort Wayne, Ind., only addressed steel industry optimism about the domestic market this year despite an obvious falloff in purchasing by automakers and other metalworking industries. He said there were pockets of strong demand in the market and largely balanced inventories. Busse also noted that the weak U.S. dollar was working to suppress imported material and expand exported steel mill products.

The outgoing AISI chairman, Ward "Tim" Timken Jr., chairman of Dayton, Ohio-based Timken Co. told the media that parts of economy "are very vibrant," citing the aerospace and oil and gas sectors.