US steel import licenses for January totaled 2.64 million mt, up 18.9% from the final December import tally of 2.22 million mt and also higher than the total of 2.55 million mt in January 2017.
According to Commerce Department data released late Tuesday, Canada was once again the biggest foreign supplier to the US, sending it 469,249 mt, up about 5% from December. Imports from No. 2 Brazil totaled 397,444 mt, up more than 23% from December.
South Korea supplanted Mexico (237,867 mt) as the third-largest steel exporter to the US at 328,565 mt in January import licenses, up nearly 90% from December's count of 174,060 mt.
January US import licenses for steel from Turkey at 154,320 mt were nearly triple the tonnage Turkey sent to the US in December, making it the No. 5 supplier, elbowing out Russia (140,414 mt).
A product-by-product breakdown of January US import licenses was not immediately available.
