Beam licenses year to date (YTD), through August 21^st totaled 371,631 tons, down 6.2% from last year’s YTD 396,161 tons. August to date license requests were for 20,406 tons, down substantially from the May, June, July average of 61,864 tons. Wide flange beams accounted for 64% and standard I beams make up the remaining 36%.

Figure 1 shows total Beam licenses through August for both 2016 and 2017 as reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System (SIMA). It also presents the Average Unit Value, (AUV) which declined from $544 per ton in July to $518 per ton to August.

Figure 2 charts the YTD total by country for 2016 and 2017. South Korea’s license requests YTD through August totaled 91,630 tons down 7,521 tons YTD y/y, (-7.6%). South Korea’s August month to date license requests stood at 6,917, down 60.0% from its May, June, July average of 17,283 tons. Luxembourg’s license requests YTD were 95,751, up 18,813 tons YTD y/y, (+24.5%). So far in August Luxembourg’s license total was 1,316 tons, down 90.7% from its May, June, July average of 14,218 tons. Spain was the next largest exporter with 69,232 tons YTD, down from its YTD 2016 level of 77,596 tons, (-10.8%). August license requests thus far were for 5,779 tons down 56.3% from its May, June, July average of 13,235 tons. The United Kingdom YTD licenses total was 31,563 tons, up 88.3% y/y, from YTD 2016 total of 16,762 tons. License requests for August was for just 46 tons, well down from its May, June, July average of 6,919 tons.

Mexico YTD total license request was down 41.6% from its 29,958 tons in 2016. August’s license requests were for 878 tons down 69.2% from its May, June, July average of 2,854 tons. The United Arab Emirates YTD license total was 16,014 tons, up 9.8% y/y from 2016 YTD total of 14,590 tons. The United Arab Emirates licensed 3,182 in August after two months in a row with zero tons. Germany’s YTD stands at 12,772 tons, down 27.4% from its 2016 YTD total of 17,598 tons. Germany’s August’s to date licenses were for 230 tons 71.6% lower than its May, June, July average of 811 tons. Canada’s total license requests YTD were for 13,899 tons, up 7.2% YTD y/y. August license requests from Canada were for 263 tons, down from its May, June, July average of 2,409 tons. So far in 2017 Russia has only licensed 239 tons compared to 26,397 tons for the eight months of 2016. Russia has only licensed 66 tons in total for the past four months. Rounding out the top 10 beam exporting countries was Taiwan with a YTD total of 14,543 tons up 29.4%, from last year’s 10,249 tons. Taiwan license for August to date was for 1,341 tons, up slightly from its May, June, July average of 1,287 tons.

Twelve additional countries exported beams to the U.S. thus far in 2017. The combined volume was 4,498 tons or 1.2% of the YTD total tonnage.

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