Rebar licenses through September 14^th totaled just 673 tons, plummeting from the year to date, (YTD) average through August of 149,957 tons. On a year to date, (YTD) basis, there have been a total of 1,200,326 tons of rebar license requests, down 30.2% from the 1,720,308 tons of license requests YTD 2016.

Figure 1 shows total rebar licenses by month through September for both 2016 and 2017 as reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System (SIMA).

Figure 2 charts the YTD total by country for 2016 and 2017. Year to date, Turkey’s license requests totaled 828,252 tons down 365,128 tons YTD y/y, (-30.5%). Turkey’s has not requested any licenses thus far in September vs. a YTD average through August of 59,187 tons. Turkish material accounts for 69.0% of all rebar licenses YTD.

Japan with 24,169 tons of licenses YTD was down 90.3% from YTD 2016 level of 250,382 tons. Japan has not requested any licenses since February. Taiwan licensed 13,352 rebar tons for U.S. export YTD 2017, tumbling 90.4% y/y from 139,851 tons YTD 2016. Taiwan came back to the US in June (3,783 tons) and July (9,569), after zero tons in the January to May timeframe. Taiwan did not request any licensed tonnage through September 14^st. Portugal was the next largest exporter with 88,566 tons through September, a 20-fold increase from YTD 2016s, 4,335 tons. Portugal has yet to license any tons for September. Vietnam has a YTD total of 61,607 tons of licenses, up from zero in 2016. Vietnam did not request any licenses for September. Peru requested 35,871 tons YTD up 38.4% y/y. Peru has not requested any tons for September thus far. Peru’s only other U.S. rebar export month this year was February with 17,672 tons.

The Dominican Republic’s license total YTD was 23,389 tons, up 27.7% over its YTD 2016 total of 18,320 tons. The Dominican Republic has yet to license any tons in September, its YTD monthly average is 2,924 tons. Brazil’s volume fell 33.3% YTD y/y to 15,872 tons from YTD 2016s, 23,798 tons. Brazil did not request any licensed tons for September. Russia’s YTD license total through September was 15,872 tons, down 6,287 tons YTD y/y or 28.4%. Russia’s has not requested any licensed tonnage for September as yet. Italy licensed a total of 30,992 tons YTD in 2017, Italy did not export any rebar to the U.S. in 2016. Italy has not requested any licensed tonnage for September.

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