Rebar licenses through August 21^st totaled just 13,451 tons, plummeting from the May, June and July average of 134,817 tons. On a year to date, (YTD) basis, there have been a total of 1,124,117 tons of rebar license requests, down 27.6% from the 1,552,268 tons of license requests YTD 2016.

Figure 1 shows total rebar licenses by month through August 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 778,252 tons down 300,812 tons YTD y/y, (-27.9%). Turkey’s has not requested any licenses thus far in August vs. a May, June and July average of 65,336 tons. Turkish material accounts for 69.2% of all rebar licenses YTD y/y, a slight decrease of 0.3 percentage points from 2016.

Japan with 24,169 tons of licenses YTD was down 89.6% from YTD 2016 level of 231,739 tons. Japan has not requested any licenses since February. Taiwan licensed 13,352 rebar tons for U.S. export YTD 2017, tumbling 87.9% y/y from 110,739 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 August 21^st. Portugal was the next largest exporter with 88,566 tons through August, a 20-fold increase from YTD 2016s, 4,316 tons. August to date Portugal has requested 10,133 tons. Portugal is in and out of the market. June licenses were for 56,783 tons falling to 4,007 tons in July, zero tons in April and May, 17,662 tons in March and zero tons in January and February.

Vietnam has a YTD total of 61,607 tons of licenses, up from zero in 2016. Vietnam did not request any licenses for August. Vietnam’s May, June and July average was 12,305 tons. Peru requested 35,871 tons YTD up 38.4% y/y. Peru has not requested any tons for August thus far. Peru’s May, June and July average was 9,100 tons. 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 21,956 tons is up 28.0% over its YTD 2016 total of 17,162 tons. August’s licenses request was for 1,783 tons, down 42.2% from its May, June and July average of 3,087 tons. Brazil’s volume fell 21.5% YTD y/y to 15,872 tons from YTD 2016s, 20,224 tons. Brazil did not request any licensed tons for August. Canada’s YTD license total through August was 15,211 tons, up 4,686 tons YTD y/y or 44.5%. Canada’s license requests for August were for 288 tons, right at its May, June and July average. Canada had one large month YTD 2017 in February with 10,803 tons.

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