Beam licenses year to-date (YTD), through November 14^th totaled 493,328 tons, down 6.9%, or 36,835 tons from last year’s YTD total of 530,163 tons. November to-date license requests were for 3,759 tons, a fraction of the YTD average of 44,848 tons. Wide flange beams accounted for 66% and standard I beams made up the remaining 34% on a YTD basis.

Figure 1 shows total Beam licenses through November for both 2016 and 2017 as reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System (SIMA). Beam licenses were very light in November vs. recent history.

Figure 2 charts the YTD total by country for 2016 and 2017.

South Korea’s license requests YTD through November totaled 141,401 tons, close to the 144,860 tons YTD 2016. South Korea’s November month to-date license requests stood at 1,295, down 11,560 tons or, 89.9% from its YTD average of 12,855 tons. Luxembourg’s license requests YTD were 121,745, up 17,022 tons YTD y/y, (+16.3%). Its month to-date license total was only 101 tons, down 99.1% from its YTD average through September 11,068 tons. Year to-date Spain licensed 88,418 tons, down 14.3% from its YTD 2016 level of 95,800 tons. Spain’s November license requests month to-date were for 533 tons, 93.3% lower than its YTD average 8,038 tons. The three country total of Korea, Luxembourg and Spain account for 71.3% of YTD beam licenses.

Mexico YTD total license requests were 24,653, down 26.3% from its 33,437 tons in 2016. November’s license requests were for 1,211 tons, 46.0% than its YTD through September average of 2,284 tons. The United Kingdom YTD license total was 32,850 tons, up 58.3% y/y, from its YTD 2016 total of 20,746 tons. UK’s license requests stood a mere 23 tons through November 14^th, down from its YTD average of 2,986 tons. Canada’s YTD total stands at 20,653 tons, nearly the same as its 2016 YTD total of 20,746 tons. Canada’s November’s to-date licenses were for 398 tons, down from its YTD average of 1,878 tons.

Taiwan with a YTD license total of 17,826 tons was down 3.6%, from last year’s 17,201 tons. Taiwan did not license any tons for November through the 14^th. So far in 2017 Russia has only licensed 254 tons compared to 34,868 tons for the first 11 months of 2016. Russia has not licensed any tons for November. Germany total license requests YTD were for 13,455 tons, off 31.5% YTD y/y. November license requests month to-date from Germany were for 73 tons, much less than the YTD average of 1,223 tons. The United Arab Emirates YTD license total was 19,184 tons, up 31.5% y/y from 2016 YTD total of 14,590 tons. The United Arab Emirates licensed zero tons in November.

Twenty-four additional countries combined beam license request YTD totaled 7,012 tons, down 30.8% YTD y/y from the 10,129 tons in 2016.

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