Steel shipments to the US rose 4.4% y/y in Q1

In the first quarter of 2026, U.S. steel mills increased shipments of steel products by 4.4% year-on-year – to 23.2 million tons, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).

In March of this year, U.S. steel companies increased shipments of steel products by 6.2% year-on-year – to 8.2 million tons. Compared to the previous month, shipments rose by 10.9%, when the figure stood at 7.4 million tons.

A comparison of the shipment structure since the beginning of 2026 with the same period last year shows the following changes:

• corrosion-resistant sheet and strip – an increase of 13%;
• hot-rolled sheet and strip – an increase of 4%;
• cold-rolled sheet and strip – a 6% decrease.

As a reminder, steel product shipments from U.S. steel mills rose by 4.9% in 2025 compared to 2024, reaching 90.95 million short tons.

As reported by GMK Center, the U.S. imported 3.7 million short tons of rolled steel in January–March 2026, a 35% decrease compared to the same period in 2025.  The largest share of rolled steel imports during the period was accounted for by products for the oil industry—338,900 tons (-36.7% y/y), rebar—305,600 tons (-7% y/y), cold-rolled coils – 275,300 tons (-43.4% y/y), and hot-dip galvanized sheets – 272,600 tons (-52.3% y/y).