Wire Rod licenses for the month of March through the 13^th, totaled 13,810 tons, 93% lower than March 2017. On a YTD basis licensed import volume was 237,763 tons, 52% less than the 495,986 tons YTD 2017. Three HTS codes are includes in this analysis.

Beam licenses through March 13^th totaled just 4,300 tons, down 37,128 tons or 89.6% from last March’s total of 41,428 tons. Year to date, (YTD) beam import license volume through March 13^th totaled 68,856 ton, vs. 105,008 tons YTD 2017 and 147,163 tons YTD 2016.

Total SBQ licenses year to date, (YTD) through March 13^th totaled 81,716 tons, down 16% from the YTD 2017 total of 97,035 tons. Thus far in March, 9,202 tons of licenses have been requested, down 74% from the 34,995 tons in March 2017.

The total tonnage for the week ending March 3^rd was 1,834 million tons, (Mt) at a capacity utilization rate of 78.7%. This was the highest capacity utilization rate since the week of September 20, 2014 and can be attributed to the pending 25% steel tariff proposed by president Trump.

For the 12 months ending January 2018, U.S. mill shipments of long products increased by 6.4% year on year, (y/y). U.S. domestic consumption of long products increased by 0.6% over the same timeframe.

U.S. national Portland cement shipments in December totaled 6.71 million, (Mt) short tons. For the three months total (3MMT), ending December, cement shipments were up 3.3% year on year, (y/y). Five of the nine census regions posted higher 3MMT cement shipments y/y.