Merchant final imports to the US were up 4.3% year to date (YTD), year on year (y/y), totaling 299,931 tons for the six months ending June 2017. On a month over month comparison, Merchant imports were up 5.4% at 53,755 tons.

Figure 1 charts the largest exporting countries in rank order on a YTD basis through June for both 2016 and 2017. Mexico and Canada combined account for 68.9% of the total, up 4.6 percentage points YTD y/y.

Mexico was the largest exporter with 114,797 tons, up 14.80% YTD y/y. Month on month, (m/m) volume was down 1.2% at 18,757 tons. Canada sent 91,911 tons to the US YTD, up 8.0% YTD y/y, m/m volume was off 14% at 13,392 tons. Japan ranked third YTD with 35,797, down 2.7% YTD y/y. For the month of June, Japanese exports were flat at 7,692 tons. Turkey sent 19,829 tons of merchants to the US, flat YTD y/y. Month on month Turkish volume was down 3.1% at 4,349 tons. Taiwan was the next largest with 7,541 tons, up 26.8% YTD y/y. Volume for the month was double Mays’ at 1,719 tons. Korea in 6^th place exported 7,114 tons YTD, falling 44.4% YTD y/y. Month on volume jumped 70.8% to 1,537 tons. Germany was the next largest with 5,991 tons, up 64.6% YTD y/y. German merchant exports in June soared to 1,723 tons, eleven time May’s volume. Brazil sent 3,810 tons of merchant products to the US YTD up 8.5% YTD y/y. Volume for the month of June jumped to 1,187 tons, up from Mays’ 100 tons. These top eight countries account for 93% of the total merchant intake. There were 19 other countries that exported a combined 20,255 tons of merchants in June.

Laredo Texas was the largest receiving port, offloading 80,279 tons YTD, up 21.9% YTD y/y. Detroit held the number two spot with 60,305 tons, up 2.5% YTD y/y. New Orleans ranked third with 25,849 tons falling 9.4% YTD y/y. Houston/Galveston was the next largest port bringing in 20,783 ton YTD, an increase of 10.4% YTD y/y. San Diego, received 18,880 tons, down 3.7% YTD y/y. Buffalo took-in 17,670, climbing 14.4% YTD y/y. El Paso was the 7^th largest receiver of US merchants with 15,026 tons, up 4.5% YTD y/y. Los Angeles offloaded 13,447 tons, up 5.2% YTD y/y. Savannah was next with 10,093 tons, plummeting 25.6% YTD y/y. Rounding-out the top 10 was Ogdensburg NY, bringing in 8,182 tons, up 37.5% YTD y/y. Twenty-one additional ports combined to receive 29,371 tons of merchant imports thus far in 2017, 9.8% of the total volume YTD.

At Gerdau we closely follow trade in long products steel since it has a profound impact on domestic market share and material pricing. We want you, our valued customers to have access to current information that can help you better plan and operate your businesses.