Worldsteel Association (WSA) reports that global crude steel production totaled 138.823 million tonnes (Mt) at a capacity utilization rate, (CUR) of 70.0% in January. Production was up by 1.380 Mt month on month as the CUR was up 0.7 percentage points over December.

Rebar licenses through February 20^th totaled 30,273 tons, well down, (75.3%) from last February’s 122,522 tons. On a year to date, (YTD) basis, there have been a total of 154,099 tons of rebar license requests, down 52.3% from YTD 2017.

Total SBQ licenses through February 20^th totaled 24,015 tons, down 13.4% from last February’s 27,747 tons. Year to date, (YTD) licenses totaled 61,468 tons, up 18.1% from YTD 2017s, 52,041 tons.

Beam licenses through February 20^th totaled 29,169 tons, up 5,618 tons or 23.8% from last February’s total of 23,551 tons. Month on month, (m/m) February’s license volume was higher by 4,095 tons. Year to date, (YTD), total licensed beam imports stand at 54,243 tons.

Wire Rod licenses for the month of February through the 20^th, totaled 85,978 tons, 46.1% lower than February 2017. On a YTD basis licensed import volume was 191,266 tons, 35.5% less than the 296,766 tons YTD 2017. Three HTS codes are includes in this analysis.

Total Merchant licenses, (representing 10 HTS codes), year to-date, (YTD) through February 20^th totaled 108,918 tons, down 39,955 tons or 26.8% from last year’s 188,873 tons.