U.S. steel exports flat in January

U.S. steel exported in January fell 0.4 percent compared to the previous month.    The American Institute for International Steel said U.S. steel exports for January remained unchanged from the previous month, citing a jump in imports by the European Union which was subsequently counterbalanced by a major drop in these shipments to Brazil.
   Overall, the 925,429 net tons of U.S. steel exported in January were 0.4 percent less than in the previous month, and almost 4 percent less than in January 2014, the trade group noted. 
   U.S. steel exports to the European Union increased 30.4 percent from last December to 31,594 net tons, one third more than last January’s total. However, Brazil’s imports of U.S. steel dropped a whopping 81.5 percent to just 3,488 net tons. 
   Similar exports to Canada grew 2.3 percent in January to 480,855 net tons – 9 percent less than a year earlier – while exports to Mexico fell 0.8 percent to 337,599 net tons – just over 1 percent higher than last January, according to AIIS.
   “The numbers coming into 2015 are positive, but middling: Canada posted 2.5 percent growth in 2014, and the Mexican economy grew at a 2.1 percent annual rate. While those numbers were improvements over 2013, analysts have become more pessimistic about continued forward progress, with forecasts both north and south of the border recently revised downward,” AIIS said. “Predictions are not reality, of course, but if economic growth in Canada and Mexico this year comes in at around 2-3 percent, United States steel exports will probably not show significant gains.”