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. Straight lengths accounts for 98.8% of rebar imports.

Figure 1 shows total rebar licenses by month through February for both 2017 and 2018 as reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System (SIMA).

Figure 2 charts the YTD total by country for 2017 and 2018. Year to date, Turkey’s license requests totaled 110,400 tons down 141,186 tons YTD y/y, (-56.1%). Turkey’s has requested 19,970 licensed tons for February. Turkish material accounts for 71.6% of all rebar licenses YTD. This ratio was 69.7% for all of 2017. Japan has not licensed any so far in 2018 compared to 24,169 tons YTD in 2017. It is evident from Figure 2, that other countries are stepping-up to make-up some of the tons that Turkey and Japan have relinquished.

Brazil requested 17,418 licensed tons YTD, all in January. Brazil did not license any tons YTD 2017 and has not requested any licenses for February. The Dominican Republic’s license total YTD was 12,006 tons, up 148% over its YTD 2017 total of 4,837 tons. The Dominican Republic has licensed 4,178 tons so far this February. Mexico licensed 11,341 rebar tons for U.S. export YTD 2018, up from just 140 tons YTD last year. Mexico is off to a strong start in 2018. It has requested 5,806 tons for February, after 5,535 tons in January. Canada has requested only 1,715 tons YTD, well off its YTD 2017 volume of 10,871 tons. Canada has requested 267 tons for February.

Peru, India and Vietnam have yet to license any tons in 2018. Last year at this juncture, Peru had licensed 17,672 tons, India 5,656 tons and Vietnam 5,571 tons. Germany has licensed 391 tons YTD, down 84% YTD y/y. Germanys February licenses to date were for 40 tons.

Twenty-two additional country’s combined for a total of 751 licensed tons YTD in 2018. The combined total license request month to date for February was just 11 tons. Year to date 2017 the same 22 countries had requested

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