This Morning in Metals: U.S. steel imports down 16%

Steel imports drop 16% through October

U.S. imports of steel through the first 10 months of the year were down 16% on a year-over-year basis, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported this week.
Steel imports through the end of October totaled 24.78 million tons, according to the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. steel imports for totaled 2.18 million tons in October, which marked a 14.5% increase compared with the September import total.

Steel companies raise prices

Amid slumping steel prices, companies like U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal are raising prices for their products, the Times of Northwest Indiana reported.
According to the Times’ report, the steelmakers have raised their prices for flat-rolled steel three times in less than a month.

Chile protests continue

Widespread protests erupted in Chile in October, at first over a proposed metro fare hike; since then, the protests have expanded to encompass more widespread, systemic ills that are being called out by the protesters in the streets of Santiago and other cities.
Chile is the world’s No. 1 copper producer. Bloomberg reports the country’s recent protests could in fact threaten the status of the country’s major state-owned producer as the world’s No. 1 producer.
According to the report, state-owned Codelco — the world’s top copper producer — had been planning to spend $20 billion in Chile over a decade to modernize its mines.
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However, Bloomberg notes, demands raised by protesters in Chile could be at odds with government funding Codelco had looked for toward that aforementioned modernization. As a result, Codelco may fall from its No. 1 spot, according to Colin Hamilton of BMO Capital Markets, as cited by Bloomberg.